I'd Like a Bloody Mary
by ftbprotocol
Summary: Thor doesn't make it back to the future with the Rabbit. Instead he finds himself sent further back, trapped in a nightmare where none of his friends know him and his brother is invading Midgard. With no sign of young-Thor he is forced to keep time flowing as it should, if he wants to make it back to his future. But first, he's going to need another Bloody Mary [time travel fix-it]
1. Natasha

Author's Notes:

Inspired by esama's Brighter Stars (on AO3, not sure if it is on here?)

This is a lighthearted take to get me started on NaNoWriMo. I have a few chapters written already and will post as I finish editing them.

Hope you enjoy! :)

...

Natasha peers through the cockpit window at the darkening skies, thunder rumbling in the distance. She doesn't like how quickly the dark clouds are forming. So far the mission has been a success, but her instincts have her waiting for the next obstacle.

Loki has been captured they and are on their way back to the Helicarrier. It had been easier than expected, in no small part thanks to Stark's help. As obnoxious as the man can be it had been quite the relief to see that Coulson had managed to convince him to help.

Over her headset Fury asks, "He said anything?"

"Not a word." She answers with a concerned frown.

"Just get him here. We're low on time." Fury orders, so she focuses her attention on navigating the oncoming storm. They are flying as fast as the stealth jet can go and the sudden, unpredictable gusts of wind are making it difficult.

Her co-pilot is very experienced however, so she feels comfortable navigating while half listening to the whispered conversation behind her.

"I don't like it." Rogers and Stark are standing close to each other, Stark's helmet recently taken off and resting on one of the equipment racks.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"

"I don't remember it ever being that easy. This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?"

"What?"

Natasha breathes slowly out through her nose, too professional and well-trained to sigh like she wants to. Stark better be keeping a close eye on Loki, and not letting the novelty of Captain America distract him too badly.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

She can hear Captain Rogers shift on his feet. Hopefully she doesn't also need to worry about Rogers staying on task. Babysitting both of them is beyond the scope of her mission.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

Natasha doesn't have time to think about whether or not she should reply to that, for she's jerked in her seat as lightning nearly hits the jet. Behind her, Rogers and Stark stumble as it shakes violently. She'd tell them to sit down and buckle in, but they also need to be ready to move if Loki tries anything.

"Where's this coming from?" She asks the jet at large, getting frustrated as stronger and stronger winds buffet them. This storm isn't behaving like any she'd flown through before. It almost felt as if it was homing in on them.

But that was impossible.

Thunder rumbles even closer to the jet. It was so close and loud she can feel it vibrating in her chest. Not a good sign.

"What's the matter?" She spares a glance back, thinking Rogers is talking to her for a moment, to see him frowning at Loki, "Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." She can't see his face, focused as she is on navigating the storm, but she finds it curious that the first words he'd speak since they picked him up were to comment on a storm.

A blinding flash briefly forces her to close her eyes. Had they just been hit by lightning? The jet rocks again. She tries to blink the spots from her eyes, worried about damage to the jet. But the instruments all show readings she'd expect while flying in a storm, nothing out of the ordinary. Her co-pilot quickly confirms that his readings also match hers.

Movement has her looking up at the window. She can't stop herself. She yells, "The hell!"

Twin calls of, "What?" echo behind her.

Followed by a more high pitched, "What!" from Stark.

Out there in the storm, straddling the nose of the stealth jet, face pressed against the glass, is a bearded man with messy long hair.

"How is he- Who is this guy?" Stark asks.

"One of yours?" She turns to look behind her, giving up control to her co-pilot. But Loki is just sitting back in the seat, watching them with a pinched look on his face.

"Another Asgardian?" She asks out loud, more to herself than the others, not completely sure. He almost looks like the guy they have on file, or at least the long hair seemed to match. However the beard, the storm, and the clothes made it hard to tell.

They all blink in shock when the surprise passenger waves at them.

"Think the guy's a friendly?" Steve asks hesitantly in response to the wave.

"Only one way to find out." Stark's voice went mechanical part way through the sentence, his helmet now in place. She doesn't need to look to hear the heavy clank of his boots as he stalks towards the back hatch, an alert on the console showing he has opened it.

"Stark wait, we can't just-" The Captain futilely tries to reign Stark in.

Natasha is still staring at their surprise passenger so she sees when panic starts to fill his face, his eyes darting around the interior of the ship. If this is the Asgardian known as Thor, then Coulson had reported he'd declared himself the 'defender of Midgard'. She sure hopes that is still true. As much confidence as she has in Fury, it would put her mind more at ease to have a source of intel on Loki on their side.

"He's starting to slip-" Natasha manages to warn, just as the man-sized fly slides off the nose of the jet, and starts to fall


	2. Thor

Author's Note: Though the first chapter was mostly dialogue from the movie, I'm going to try and avoid just repeating conversations as much as I can. Thankfully, depressed Thor makes that pretty easy! Whether or not events end roughly the same way they did in the movie... I'm undecided. It depends on Thor ;)

Thor can admit to himself that, letting go and falling off the jet... not his greatest decision. Not the worst either, of course, _'Should have aimed for the head_,' but not the greatest.

He has created a small indent in the ground where he landed, broken branches strewn around his body. He closes his eyes and frowns, trying to remember what had gone wrong.

Why had he not returned to the rest of the Avengers?

He remembers the rabbit running up as he was speaking to his mother. He remembers being told that it was time to go. He remembers wishing with all of his might that they had more time together, as grateful as he had been to talk with her once again, he hadn't wanted it to end.

Had he interrupted the rabbit?

Right! He'd suddenly remembered that Mjolnir was still whole in that time, and felt a desperate need to check. To be sure. To prove to both himself and his mother that what she'd said to him was true. That while he might have been a failure, and therefore no different than anyone else, that didn't mean he was unworthy.

He remembers closing his eyes, praying to the great tree that Mjolnir would answer. Had the rabbit yelled something? For the next thing he knew, he was falling through a thunderous storm, with no sign of the rabbit anywhere, or any hint of which realm he was on.

Until his fall had been interrupted by a jet.

He'd blinked in shock at the sight inside the cockpit. Lady Natasha, Captain Rogers, and Tony Stark had all been staring out at him with wide eyes. He hadn't been able to stop his hesitant little wave, when their shocked faces gained frowns of suspicion. Also, it was quite confusing and off putting how young they suddenly looked.

A very bad feeling had welled up in his gut, and that wasn't just the Asgard spirits disagreeing with him. A flash of green near the back of the jet had caught his eye, made his brain go -Nope! - and next thing he knew, he was letting go.

Maybe, if he was lucky, they'd just keep flying.

Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have to deal with what he suspected to be true.

He really, really, does not want to deal with whatever had just gone wrong. Not yet. He just... needs a moment... or ten. He'd been so looking forward to the keg that was promised him once they returned from Asgard, but now...

The familiar sound of Stark's armour descending has him scrunching his eyes closed even harder. Maybe if he played dead, he'd go away?

"Alright, hands where I can see them Lebowski." Stark's mechanical voice booms, followed by the sounds of repulsors charging.

When Thor just lays there and doesn't move, there is the thud of heavy armour on the ground, followed by high pitched whirs as it stomps towards him.

Had Stark's armour always been that loud? Last time Thor'd been on Earth, he'd been astonished at how much magic had been incorporated into the design. Stark had been extremely offended for some reason.

Or at least he'd acted that way. It was hard to tell sometimes. Much like with- no. Nope. Not going there.

"You alive over there?" Stark is getting closer.

Say nothing. Play dead. Just play dead and Stark will go away.

"No." He can't stop himself from blurting.

Damn.

Maybe he shouldn't have drunk so much of his Mother's spirits. He'd gotten too used to Earth's weak ales.

"You sure about that?" The whirring and heavy footsteps are getting closer.

Thor squints a blue eye open to see that Stark hasn't lowered his hands, ready and waiting for a fight. Lightning lights up the sky for a moment, the resulting thunder rumbling through Thor's bones.

If he was still his younger and more enthusiastic self, the storm would have set his blood singing for battle. And perhaps that was partly why he'd attacked when he first met Stark and Rogers. Although he'd been pretty upset for other reasons too and hadn't really wanted to listen to a bunch of Midgardians.

"Wanna explain how you not only managed to get hit by a jet, but also fall thousands of feet and still be alive?"

"Did I do that? You sure? I think I'd remember that. Nope, just- just having a nice nap here in this- this forest area, obviously." Thor tries denial, knowing that it won't work on Stark but unable to stop himself from trying anyway.

"Obviously." Stark's sarcasm comes through clearly. He makes a sweeping gesture with one of his hands, "Love what you've done to the place."

Thor wishes he didn't have to deal with this. His Mother had seen through him instantly. He needs Stark to leave him alone so he can try to find a way back to his own time. How is he going to convince them he isn't from the future when they are sure to notice his resemblance to his younger self?

Although... speaking of...

Thor opens his other eye, the one gifted to him by the rabbit, and cranes his head to look around. Is a younger version of himself around somewhere? He really needs to avoid him if he is, according to Banner's multiple pre-time travel pep talks.

"Say," Thor says, moving to prop himself up on an elbow, "you haven't happened to see a guy in a big red cape, have you? Swinging a hammer?"

Stark is silent for a moment before responding, "Noooo, can't say that I have. Got a green one though. Friend of yours?" He asks, voice gaining a threatening edge.

Thor sits up in lieu of answering, rubbing a hand over his face to hide his reaction. So he'd been right, he'd seen...**him**.

With a start, he jerks his hand away, and stares.

Out of the corner of his eye, he is vaguely aware of Stark circling him, hands raised in threat again, ordering him not to make anymore sudden moves.

But Thor ignores him for the strange mix of hysteria and horror that is rising up inside him. He doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

For the hand he is staring at is the same one that had had Stark's time travel glove on it. But the only sign that there had been something on the hand is a fragment around his wrist. The rest of the machine is gone. Destroyed.

He can't breathe.

Will he have to relive the worst years in his life? He isn't stupid (mother even said so), Stark and Banner had explained it well. If he wanted to return back to his own time, without travelling the quantum realm, he'd have to do it the slow way. He'd have to hide out and wait for time to pass naturally.

He can't breathe.

He'll have to let his mother die. Again.

He can't breathe.

Asgard will-. And then Loki will also-.

He shakes his hands in frustration, trying to force air through a closed throat.

"Whoa there!" Stark exclaims from a short distance beside him. "Hey, it's alright there big guy."

"No." He wheezes. "No its not. Nothing is. I can't fail again. I can't-"

Thor waves a gloved hand at Stark, trying communicate that he wants the armoured man to leave.

"The guy in green do something to you?" Stark asks and, the contrarian that he always is, takes off his helmet. There is a shout in the distance, the hum of engines, but Thor can't think about that, too busy taking wheezing breaths, face getting redder and redder.

"I think- I'm having another panic attack-" And no rabbit friend to help him out of it.

"You need to breathe slowly, ok? I think? Uh- I need you to-" Stark began to babble, as he usually does, moving closer, before there is a loud clang, followed by a yell of, "Son of a bitch!"

Thor looks sideways and gasps in shock. He scrambles to his knees and crawls over to where Stark has staggered to one knee.

For at his feet, the thing he had most likely just grazed with his boot, was Mjolnir.

Had she followed him? From when he'd called her while with his mother? Or is there a younger Thor out there in the woods, unable to fly because here is his hammer? But then... why is she just sitting there?

Breathing is starting to become easier, as he kneels before Mjolnir, hope rising in his breast. Stark is saying something, but Thor cannot hear him over the blood rushing through his head. His heartbeat drowning out all other noise.

This is it. He has to know. Before he does anything else, he has to know.

Thor reaches out with both hands, placing them gently on the handle. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, the air coming easily to his lungs. He tightens his grip, tenses his arms and then-

"Yes!" He cries, jumping to his feet in joy. "I'm still worthy!" He laughs, his earlier despair broken.

"Uhh, what?"

And then he remembers Stark. Filled with a need to share his joy, he lets go of Mjolnir with one of his gloved hands and wraps it around Stark's metal waist, effortlessly lifting him, spinning and laughing.

"Holy-!" Stark exclaims, face slack with shock, one of his metal hands clamping onto Thor's shoulder.

Perhaps hope isn't as lost as he'd assumed. Maybe he does have the strength to weather this storm.

He's still worthy.


	3. Stark

"Are you sure you can't convince him to come inside?" Steve asks, mouth too close to the microphone, making Tony wince. How long has the Capsicle been defrosted for again? A couple weeks? Someone needs to tell him microphone technology has improved since ancient times.

Normally, nothing would've stopped Tony from making some pithy remark about it.

But.

His brain is still stalled out on the sight in front of him.

Tony is currently flying as close to the jet as he dares, eyeing the strange man and his hammer. The flying-hobo was sitting cross-legged on the top of the jet, hammer planted in front of him while he hung onto the handle with both hands. Their current speed had his long blond hair whipping in the wind, tangling his messy locks even further. He'd wrapped his red robe around one of his arms after it almost got caught in one of the stabilizing panels.

What had really made Tony reluctant to try and force him off the jet was when, after not even recovered from the shock of him using his impossible hammer to fly onto the ship (and not into it like he'd assumed), he whipped out a pair of sunglasses.

The casual way he'd done all of this, it beggared belief.

"Are you asking me to pick a fight with this guy while he's sitting on a jet with all of you still inside it? Cause that's what it sounds like. If I had to place a bet on what would break first, him or the jet, I'd choose the jet. Did you not hear me when I said he wasn't at all injured from the fall, and then picked me up as if I weighed nothing?"

"Just," The Captain sighed, "keep trying, alright?"

"Right, just cozy up to a crazy strong dude-"

"Asgardian, most likely." Romanov interrupted.

"Oh yeah, another 'alien god', great. So cozy up to E.T. while we're travelling at almost mach 1, thousands of feet in the air. Good odds on Cap and Loki surviving, not so good for the rest of you squishy people in there. But sure. I'll talk to him." Tony gripes.

A sigh is the only response from the peanut gallery.

Why oh why hadn't the guy just flown into the hold like a normal person slash alien?

Although... his initial trajectory **had** looked like he was going to land in the hatch, but then it had changed at the last minute. Almost as if he'd taken one look inside the jet, mentally gone -never mind!- and altered his arc to land on top of the jet.

Tony slowly, carefully, flies closer to the 'god'. It's impossible to have an actual conversation with him, given the speed they are going at. But he has some pretty good speakers on this mark VI armour, so his only option is to talk the guy's ear off until he gives in. He's fairly certain that any evasive manoeuvres Agent Romanov could try would have little effect. Not if the current speed she is flying had barely moved him.

"What do you think, Jarvis?"

"Planning to shout into the wind, sir?" Jarvis answered.

Tony sighed, "Yeah, I know, but we should still give it a shot. Max volume on the external speakers."

"Done sir."

"Hey there Lebowski! Enjoying the view up here? Why not join us inside the nice quiet jet, this has gotta be killer on your hair."

Tony begins to cajole, uncertain how much of it the guy is hearing. He lets his mouth run while internally he's still trying to figure out, not only how the flying hammer works, but also how was it physically possible for 300 pounds of armour to lose to such a small piece of metal.

Instead of his stated plan of talking the space hobo's ear off until he gave in, Tony could have tried to pick the guy up and fly him into the hold. As had been suggested by Romanov at first but... the ease of which the guy had picked him up while still in the armour had been a bit too unnerving.

His reluctance to force the issue has absolutely nothing to do with the immediate reaction to a green cape. Tony hadn't immediately recognized it as a panic attack, and was extremely thankful it had resolved itself. He wasn't equipped to deal with that sort of thing.

Though, even with the panic attack, he'd agreed to come up to the jet with little fuss after he picked up the hammer... maybe it was some other underlying issue. Tony isn't getting paid to deal with these sorts of things, he should update his consultation contract.

The packet Coulson sent on these gods was woefully lacking. He needs to have a talk with Agent on the quality of his intelligence gathering.

"Listen, as much as I'd love to let you stay up here the whole way, and really I would, I'd give a lot to see the look on Fury's face, and coming from me, believe me that's a lot, but you really do need to come in. They're not going to let you into their super secret base if you're out here."

And why hadn't he followed through on the more aggressive approach he'd approached the space hobo with? He'd found the guy in a small personal crater in the forest, ready to attack first and ask questions later. For surely he was there to free their prisoner, if he was Asgardian as well.

But then he'd had just lain there. No blood, which kept Tony alert to any trick, and he'd been mostly convinced the blond had been, at minimum, unconscious. But that blurted 'no' followed by the 'oh shit' look on the shaggy face, had temporarily stayed his hand. And then the longer he talked to the guy, not to mention the apparent panic attack that came out of nowhere, and maybe he'd let his guard down enough to be lifted off his feet and spun like a girl.

No one had to know about that part.

"Is there beer?"

What!? Tony's hands jerk in surprise at not only the fact that The Dude has responded, finally, but that Tony is able to understand him. He's forced to veer sharply away from the jet, lest his armour get caught in the draft and take out a wing or something.

When he rights himself and slowly brings himself closer, he can't help the small laugh at the concerned frown blondie is giving him, peering at him over his sunglasses.

"Lebowski, if there isn't, I promise I'll find you some."


	4. Thor 2

Author's Note: Thank you for the kind review, Soulscripts! Thor is trying to try. He may or may not be successful ;)

* * *

Stark, the Man of Iron, his old Shield-Brother, had made some excellent points, loath as Thor is to admit it. The sight of his brother in the jet, just as the sight of his mother mere moments before, had overwhelmed him for a moment.

Just a moment.

He just needed time to compose himself, to ready himself for not only the first sight of his brother in five years, but also for all that would come with it.

He'd charged off and gone ahead of Stark before allowing himself time to overthink the decision. Thinking it would help somehow. It really hadn't. Thor took deep breaths, trying to keep himself calm and steady.

Still no sign of his self from this time, who he was totally waiting for and that was why he'd plopped himself down on the roof of the jet at first. Definitly not because he was worried about his own reaction to seeing his brother again. Definitely not.

But as he waited, and as Stark talked, young Thor did not appear. In fact, the storm that he'd arrived in was dissipating. The towering storm had cleared to the point that blue sky could now be seen above them.

Had he somehow replaced his younger self? But if so, then where had Odin's spell sent now-Thor instead? Hopefully, however Thor had unintentionally interfered, his younger self had just been spat back out on Asgard.

Stark is starting to get very insistent.

Thor sighs, he really is becoming too sober already to be dealing with this.

After securing a promise from Stark to get him some alcohol, Thor reluctantly begins to get up. The jet slowly decelerates in response, making standing easier. The Lady Natasha must be doing it to let him enter safely.

He keeps his red cloak wrapped around his arm, not wanting to seal with it whipping around awkwardly. It is a poor substitute for his old cape, earth materials are not nearly as sturdy, but it represented comfort and familiarity. He doesn't want it to get damaged.

Iron Man hovers in the air next to him. It is probably meant to be a threat or a push to hurry along, but Thor takes what comfort he can at having an old friend at his side. Even if it is a one-sided friendship.

With a familiar flick of Mjolnir, he steps off the end of the jet and swings up into the open hold.

In a couple quick strides he bypasses the Captain, who tries to grab him with one hand while the other presses the button to close the hatch. He demands Thor first state his name and intentions. Thor ignores him, shrugging off the hand, and seats himself across from his brother, dropping Mjolir at his feet. He casually stuffs his hands in the grey sweater pockets, slouching.

Ugh. He really doesn't want to be here.

Loki is gaping at him. Struck silent. It is a state so rare that Thor always took great pride in causing it, even if it often was a result of him doing something Loki considered stupid. His brother's eyes flick over his new outfit, his incredulity increasing with every second.

Rogers is shifting his stance, gripping his shield tightly in a move Thor recognizes as preparing himself for a fight. Probably in case Thor turns out to be hostile. It's hard to muster the energy to reassure him or care.

"Sure Point Break, make yourself at home." Stark comments, the hatch closing behind him.

Rogers is looking at Stark like he can't believe how relaxed he's being about all this. "Ok, I'll ask one more time, who are you? Did...Asgard send you?" He winces slightly while saying Asgard, looking uncomfortable about something.

Oh yeah, they don't know much about Asgard in this time, do they? His brother's presence on Midgard, and his old comrade's ignorance, is just another reminder among many that he is not where he should be.

"Hmmm." The blonde isn't sure how to answer Rogers. Should he claim to be sent by his Father? But won't that just cause problems for the Thor of this time? He doesn't want them to figure out the time travel stuff so... Ugh, he really doesn't like having to think this hard. It's sobering him up far too fast. Why couldn't the sweet rabbit be here with him? He was good at talking.

Thor fingers one of the rocks in his pocket as he thinks. He'd absently picked a few of them up, without any real conscious decision while laying in his little crater. He'd been thinking of the fact that Loki was probably on the jet, if this was the when he'd suspected it was, and the rocks had just appeared in the pockets.

Loki, ever the quick thinker, gets over his shock at Thor's changed appearance and is now beginning to sneer at him. Although Thor knows him well enough to see how he instantly tries to hide how unsettled he is.

"Aww, did you miss me?" Loki mocks, "Mourn me?" He spits, probably assuming that Thor's changed appearance is due to his most recent 'death'. Jokes on him though. He actually died for real this time.

Thor holds close the memory of his mother giving him her blessing, forces himself to look at Loki, and is surprised when he isn't overwhelmed with the same panicked emotions he'd had when first seeing her. Perhaps, in a weird way, Loki's multiple fake deaths had numbed Thor to the experience of discovering his brother was not as dead as once thought.

What a weird thing to be grateful for.

"What, no appeals to my 'better' nature?" Apparently Thor has been silent for too long, for Loki continues, "No grand declarations of brotherhood?" he takes on a mockingly sympathetic expression, "Or did your Father tell you the truth? About what I am?"

When Thor still does not immediately respond, Loki's face gains an edge of frustration, his words becoming more vitriolic.

"You should thank me, how much dark energy did the All Father conjure to send you here? To your precious **Earth**? Well you're too late, soon I will rule these mortals like the King I am. They're practically begging for someone to take them in hand-"

"Didn't think I'd say this, but I liked him better when he refused to talk." Stark mutters.

"Are you sure he's on our side?" Rogers asks Stark, subtly pointing to Thor.

Feeling grouchy now, and still upset that he's getting more sober by the minute, Thor throws the rock.

Loki flinches, the stone bouncing off his head. "What the-" he sputters. The rest of the jet falls silent, eyes on him now.

Thor's lip twitches at his brother's stunned reaction. He should do that more often. It never hurt to check.

Thor takes a deep breath, trying to channel his young-self's mode of speech, and makes his voice as commanding as he can manage, "Let me put you at ease, I'm here to put a stop to his schemes," Thor flaps the hand now out of the sweater pocket at Loki, "Protect the earth, reclaim the Tesseract for Asgard and-" Thor trails off for a moment, voice catching on the memory of his lost home, before slouching back into his seat and muttering, "And drink all the beer on your flying base thing."

For a moment, no one says anything. Even Loki doesn't seem to have anything to say.

"Great! Glad to have you on the team." Stark speaks in that quick way of his, always the first to recover from any shock.

"Wait. Mr. Stark, you're not the one to make that call." Rogers is frowning, "That's not for us to decide."

It hurts, a little, to be looked at so suspiciously by all in the jet. Stark, in his typical unpredictability, is the only one to have accepted him so readily. It is a little odd. The man had been very standoffish in the jet last time. Had their first meeting affected the tone of his reactions to Thor so much?

Emotion welling up, Thor speaks before he can stop himself, "You do me great honour, Man of Iron, I vow to live up to my frien- new friend's-," he corrects hastily, stumbling over his words, "I'll- I'll totally have your back man."

Stark's face does something weird, that Thor is too busy glancing at everyone to ensure they didn't catch him almost calling Stark an old friend, to notice. Loki is still glaring at him, but the others show no reaction, so Thor breaths a sigh of relief. Pretending not to know them might be a little harder than he thought.

A loud whirring has Thor looking beside him, mismatched eyes widening slightly behind his sunglasses as Stark sits next to him.

"So, what do we call you big guy?"

"Oh, right, you don't know- and of course you wouldn't know, we've never met before." Thor laughs nervously, then clears his throat before taking another fortifying breath, grateful for Stark sitting next to him, and trying to ignore Loki's look of disgust, "I am Thor Odinsson, of Asgard, God of Thunder, wielder of Mjolnir, that's my hammer right here," Thor pats the top of the handle, "It's awesome, cause only I can lift it," Stark and Rogers are starting to give him odd looks but he powers through it, while Loki rolls his eyes.

He points a gloved hand at Loki, "and that's my brother, Loki Odin-"

"I am no brother of yours!" Loki half hisses, half yells in rage. Thor ignoring him for so long, beyond throwing a rock at his face, has apparently made his short temper even shorter.

Thor huffs in exasperation, "Right." He sighs, "You're still hung up on that, I forgot, adopted brother then."

"What-" Loki sputters, "How dare you- Of course I'm still-"

Loki leans forward in his restraints. Which are in no way strong enough to hold him, who does he think he's fooling? His eyes are wide in indignation. Something about them has Thor frown slightly.

"Alright alright. Calm down. Family troubles, we get it." Stark immediately tries to defuse the situation, while Captain Rogers subtly shifts his feet wider apart.

"Look, I know our Father made-" Thor attempts to acknowledge their father's many faults, but Loki doesn't let him finish.

"Your Father!"

"Fine, fine if it makes you feel better-" Thor tries to calm him down, but his exasperated tone just incenses Loki further.

"Since when have you ever cared- After you threw me into the abyss-" Loki stands up in his rage, ripping free from the restraints as if they are made of paper.

Many things happen at once. Rogers brings his shield up, looking ready to punch Loki in the head with the edge. Loki looks down at himself with an 'oops' look on his face. Natasha leaps from the pilot's seat to plant herself between Loki and the co-pilot. Thor squints up at Loki's eyes from behind his sunglasses, a horrified realization hitting him like a punch to the gut. And Stark, ever the quick thinker, blasts Loki back into his seat with a repulsor.

"Sit down Shakespear."

Loki winces, more likely out of some sense of chagrin that he'd just shown how useless the straps were than out of pain. But Thor doesn't care about that. There's shouting around him but he figures he can ignore it for now.

He stands, Mjolnir flying up into his hand.

Uncertainty blooms on Loki's face when he sees Thor lift Mjolnir. He tenses his legs, about to stand, hands twitching, but Thor is quicker, thrusting Mjolnir into his lap and letting go. Loki falls back into the seat with a true grunt of pain, his hands uselessly tugging at the handle.

"It's fine, it's fine." He tries to assure everyone absently, "He won't be getting up again." But his mind is still stuck on what he'd seen in the bright lights of the jet.

Loki's squirming and scowling quickly stops, as he very obviously tries to compose himself.

"I told you it was too easy." Rogers is saying behind him.

"And I didn't say you were wrong." Stark mutters back, his voice tense.

Thor clenches his jaw, trying to hold himself back. He'd told himself he wouldn't interfere in the timeline. He needed to keep everything the same if he wanted to be able to go back where he belongs.

So what if that traps him in a nightmare, reliving the first time he fought his brother seriously. At least it was better than being in Asgard with the rabbit, surrounded by the walking dead.

But he needs a closer look. He needs to be sure.

Thor rips the sunglasses off his face, steps forward, and grips Loki under the chin. Stark and Rogers both attempt to make him back up, claiming worry for his mental state.

"What?" Loki widens his eyes with a crazed smile, completely selling the 'I'm a total nutjob' act. "What are you going to do Thor?" He taunts.

But Thor does nothing but stare, shocked, into eyes that flash blue, his mind still unwilling to make the final connection.

Loki blinks, smile dimming, "By the Norns, what did you do to your eye?" Then his crazy smile is back full force, voice taunting, "Trying to imitate daddy again are we?"

"My eye?" Thor rumbles, his voice echoed by a rumble outside the jet. "What about yours? Since when-!?" Thor lets go of Loki and stumbles back, the horrible truth sinking in. His knees hit the bench, forcing him to sit. Rogers and Stark let go of him and back up as he does so, both on edge and eyes flying between the two brothers.

"How did I not-? Why did you never-? This whole time!?" Thor wants to shake his brother until the idiot gained some sense. It was a familiar feeling from their many centuries together.

Thor could vaguely remember demanding Loki tell him who was controlling him last time. He'd asked once, and only once. Loki had of course not told him but... had he failed again? Would asking again have made any difference?

Was this why Mother had never given up on him? Had she been able to sense foreign magic on him? Not enough to sway Father, of course but...

Old questions he had long since given up getting the answers to rage in his mind. Who had given Loki the sceptre? Who had been the real leader of the Chitauri? If only the rabbit had fallen into this time with him, for he had seemed knowledgeable about such matters.

"I'm lost here. You lost?" Stark asks Rogers and Natasha. "Why's everyone so hung up on eyes?"

Thor does his best to ignore the others, trying to keep his breathing even and only partially succeeding. Loki is giving him a look like he thinks Thor is now the crazy one. And maybe he is, just a little. Grief and rage can do that to a person. And maybe he is also beginning to see Loki's past actions under a new light.

He should just leave Loki as he is. He'll break the control at some point between now and his cell in Asgard. There is no reason to interfere. No reason to change things more than just pretending to be his past self would.

_'You still see good in him, don't you? Mother, Loki is not the young boy you once knew.'_

_'Nor are you. And I love you no less.'_

But maybe... he could just speed events along a little bit. Maybe, if he frees Loki early, he'll do something to prove Mother's faith. As he did Thor's during Ragnarok. And... could Thor bring himself to meet his Mother's eyes in Valhalla, if he sat here and did nothing? Surely it couldn't hurt to check?

"Listen to me and listen well, Loki. Mother-" his voice cracks, he breathes through it and pushes on, "Mother still believes in you. So... I do this for her." Thor stands once more, taking the two steps that puts him in reaching distance of his brother.

Stark still has a hand aimed at Loki, while Steve tries to intercept him. "Sir, I need you to sit back down."

But Thor ignores him, his focus solely for his blue-eyed brother. "Thor. Wait. What are you-?" Loki is now looking at him in dawning fear.

"I'd say it will only hurt for a bit, but..." Thor tries to reassure him, gripping him around the neck with his left hand before Loki can think to run. Not that he could, with Mjolnir holding him down.

"Nononono-" Loki squirms in his hold.

"Wait!"

"We need him alive!"

Twin shouts come from behind Thor.

Mjolnir flies up to his free hand and, in one smooth motion, is brought down on Loki's head with as much strength as Thor dares.

Loki collapses on the seat. Completely unconscious.

Before Thor can open his mouth to reassure the others that Loki is fine, as they are now trying to pry him away from his brother, the telltale shimmer of Loki's illusions engulfs his body.

"Whoa!" Rogers backs away, preparing for a trick or an attack.

Iron Man once again charges up a gauntlet, keeping the other one firmly on Thor's arm.

Loki's leathers gain a tattered edge to them, but that is not what has Thor's eyes widening in surprise. No, it is at the now pallid face and the deep bruises around the eyes. Not at all the strong, in command facade he's been presenting.

Rogers and Stark relax their stances while Stark mutters, "The hell?"

Thor reaches a tentative hand to Loki's face, stretching up his eyelid to reveal green. Not blue. Thor lets out a heavy, shaky sigh. He forces himself to back away from his brother, as Stark and Rogers are still urging him to do, plopping Mjolnir on Loki's lap again as he goes.

How had he been so blind? Here was definitive proof.

"Nevermind. I can't deal with this. I'm just gonna go-" Thor stumbles as far from the prone form of his brother as he can get, collapsing into the seat. The others are silent, leaving him be as he struggles to keep his throat from closing. He puts the sunglasses back on, shutting out the world, then closes his eyes, blocking out the beaten form of his brother.

Don't think about it. Don't think about Loki. Don't think about how you've been failing your brother for longer than you realized. Don't think about how you might've just revealed too much.

The desire for a drink is overwhelming. Thor desperately searches his pockets, hands digging through empty wrappers and candy bars. The Norns are with him, finally, as he pulls out a small vial, compulsively pocketed while he was having a heart to heart with his mother.

He tilts his head back and downs it in one go.

Hopefully that was a harmless change. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite him in the ass.


	5. Stark 2

Author's Note: Good news! I've figured out how I want to end this! Now I just need to get Thor there. I've got most of the bits written, just need to tie it all together :)

* * *

The rest of the flight is tense and awkward.

Tony has settled himself up by the cockpit, occasionally speaking in quiet tones to Romanov and Rogers. Mostly useless speculation on what the weird interactions they had just witnessed meant.

There hasn't been a peep from the self-proclaimed Thunder God. Turns out he really is the Thor guy from the packet, according to Jarvis. But man did he let himself go. Apparently just as strong though. Anyway, he'd long since put his sunglasses back on, slouched down, and was now faintly snoring in the far corner of the jet.

Loki had awoken sometime after the snoring started, and hadn't responded to any of their questions beyond a narrow eyed glare. He'd poked a bit at the hammer on his lap, but otherwise didn't try to move it, giving up practically instantly.

Tony's own attempts at moving the hammer before Loki had woken up was to satisfy his own curiosity after his foot had lost a battle with it, than to test Thor's assurance only he could lift it. Though the others frowned at him, even Captain America had looked relieved when it didn't budge. Though that didn't stop him from making annoying comments during the test.

What had Howard seen in this guy?

Loki had also regained his earlier look, and hadn't that shift been a nasty surprise, turned out conquering wasn't as good for the complexion as advertised. 'Maybe it's Maybelline's' face was no longer ashen, the bruises around the eyes completely gone. His clothes even looked like they'd just been returned from the dry cleaners. Do Asgardians even send their leathers to the dry cleaners? No, they seemed more like the drop it on the floor, let the servants sort it out types.

Now their freshened up prisoner was staring, fixated on his brother. Sorry, adopted brother. Anyway, it was weirding him out. Why hide how emaciated you are unless you want to appear strong? By why bother when you're letting yourself get captured anyway? If Loki had looked like that after Tony beat him, they might have been less suspicious. Although, they were taking him to Fury's flying pirate ship regardless so... it must've mattered to Loki.

Lebowski continues to snore through the landing procedures, although in all fairness it is a pretty smooth landing.

Tony strides forward and opens the hatch as soon as they touch down, unwilling to wait for any cool down procedures. The sight that greets him is a dozen agents armed and with weapons drawn. Not that it's a surprise, he'd seen them through the cockpit window on approach.

Agent Romanov claimed Fury had somewhere to stash Loki, though Tony's a bit worried now he might just Hoodini himself to freedom. But... much as it physically hurt to think it, seeing how easily Thor used his impossible hammer to immobilize his brother, Tony isn't nearly as worried as he'd been earlier. Even if the big guy is a complete mess, he could still be very useful.

But what really had him looking forward to getting off the jet, was making the family drama someone else's problem. He would've walked right past the slouched lump near the ramp, except his plaid legs are blocking the exit and- wait- are those crocs!?

"Jarvis, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Presumably sir."

Tony sighs to himself, barely shaking off the glaring distraction. He needs to get off this crazy jet and get to the science part of this whole mess. He forces himself to reach out to touch Thor's shoulder. No need to go stepping on a friendly supposed god's literal toes. Yet.

"Hey, time to wake up sleeping- ah!" Tony cries as Thor jumps to his feet in a scream of rage, arms flailing and slamming Tony into the far wall of the jet.

"I'll rip your arms off and shove them up your butt! Nudema- What?"

Note to self, always wear the armour when trying to wake up a sleeping Asgardian who is drinking his troubles away.

Tony slides to one knee, armour scraping against the jet's hull, breath briefly knocked out of him.

"Where am I? Oh hey, Stark, what are you- here let me-" Thor reaches down and effortlessly puts him on his feet. Tony's stomach does a little flip at yet another example of how strong the guy is. It was so easy to forget, what with the whole hippie/stoner look he had going.

"Oh right." The big guy's enthusiasm dissipates like smoke, replaced with a disgusted, "Ugh."

And what the hell did that mean? Blondie was obviously not enthused about dealing with his brother. (Thank you Howard for making me an only child) Who he had apparently thought was dead? Talk about drinking and eating your emotions away.

Tony tries not to flinch as an arm is wrapped around his metal shoulder. The bushman leans in close, guiding both of them down the ramp. And in doing so, completely ignores the brother he had been so fixated on before.

Tony still has not figured out what all that yelling about eyes had meant.

"Beer. You promised me beer. Don't forget." Point Break speaks like a man nearing the end of his rope, and only the promise of more alcohol is keeping him going. It is hard not to feel a tiny bit sympathetic for the big guy, given Tony's own experiences with drugs, alcohol, and dead family. He's feeling... about 12% sympathetic.

This close, Tony can see little pieces of what looked like candy fragments in the blonde beard.

"Yikes, ever heard of a breath mint?" Tony scrunches up his nose. Even while trying to be cautious of angering Blondie, he apparently can't stop himself. Mouth, please don't piss off the emotional, super strong alien.

"Uh, yeah? So?" Thor answers, squinting his eyes at Tony like he is some particularly tricky puzzle.

"I'll... bring you some of those too." Tony cops out of explaining, almost stumbling down the ramp, being forced to try and compensate for the guy leaning far more heavily on him than expected.

Thor brings a hand up to his impressive bush-bearded mouth, cups the hand, and breathes out. His whole face scrunches up after taking a big whiff through the nose.

"You're a good friend, you know that?" Even after apparently agreeing with Tony about the rancid breath, the guy still brings their faces closer together to seriously whisper, "You get me."

"Hey, no problem Teddy." Tony tries to deflect. Has he made some kind of weird alien pact without realizing it!?

"Mr Odinson!" Agent Romanov calls down from the jet, "We need you to move the hammer."

Tony blinks, and then smirks. He wishes he could see the look on her face back in the jet. Maybe he should have stayed up there a little bit longer.

"Oh, yeah. That." Is sighed into the messy beard.

It is such a put upon sound, Tony is not sure what to make of it. And how did he forget about the hammer in the first place? He's beginning to really worry about their chances if this is the only help Earth can expect from space-ville. The poor guy very obviously does not want to be here.

All Thor does is raise his free hand. The arm around his shoulders prevents Tony from watching so from his perspective, between one blink and the next, the hammer appears in the fingerless-gloved hand.

A scream followed by a thud sounds behind them.

"Oops." Is all Thor says when they both turn to see one of the armoured agents on their back, clutching their chest in pain halfway down the ramp.


	6. Thor 3 & Fury

**Thor**

* * *

Thor follows the SHIELD people escorting Loki to the clear cage thing. They tried to make him walk as part of the guard, bringing up the rear, but Thor had dragged his feet until they were forced to close the gap in their ranks.

The halls are narrow, so a group of the guards are forced to walk with their backs to Loki, clearing the way as they go. Loki is flanked by two guards, each with a hand on his arms while his hands are tied in front of him. Between Loki and Thor another group of guards walk, guns ready should Loki try anything. Not that the bullets would do much damage, but whatever makes them happy.

Thor briefly considered pointing it out, but he hadn't last time. He remembered being too ashamed at his initial treatment of the mortals as the reason he didn't speak up. He'd been feeling extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed. For hadn't he learned not to let his temper get the better of him? And yet, just a Midgardian year later and he had already fallen back into old habits.

Not warning them didn't hurt anything last time, so what would be the point now?

Iron Man comes to a stop beside him as Thor hangs back and watches his brother calmly walk towards the big cage. Loki has fixed his appearance so his leathers no longer look as worn, and his face no longer so pale, but Thor knows it for the lie it is. A part of him, a surprisingly large part, wants to sit down in front of the clear door and have a long talk with his brother.

But it is easy to convince himself it is a bad idea. He shouldn't try to change too much, not if he wants to make it back to his proper time. And the longer he interacts with Loki, the more likely Loki will realize he is from the future. Mother had seen through him instantly, after all, and she taught Loki everything she knows.

Thor doesn't wait for them to finish sealing Loki. This whole situation sucks and he wants a beer. He'd made Stark promise to hook Thor up with some alcohol, but... he now feels like it'd be rude to pull him away on a quest for beer. Hadn't Stark had something important to do while on the ship?

He wanders off, briefly asking one of the faceless agents for directions to food. The little mortal stammers a bit, before giving in once Thor gives him 'a look' over his glasses. People call for him to come back, but he mostly ignores them.

His only response is calling over his shoulder, "Stark! I will rejoin you once I complete my quest!"

An agent hurries to catch up to him once he has turned a corner. The man tries to distract Thor but the determined god ignores him until the mortal steps completely in front of him. Thor is forced to halt in order to avoid hurting the fragile man.

"Sir, actually, the cafeteria is this way." He places a hand on Thor's elbow, trying to lead him back the way he came.

Thor ignores the hand and presses a finger to the man's chest, backing him into a wall, "Do not think to impede me on my quest. I will find what I came for, with or without your help."

The agent gulps and nods, looking a little more terrified than Thor thinks is warranted. He replays the few words he'd said to the man in his head and then thinks, _Oops._ Apparently Thor had used his deep, threatening voice. It was an accident! But he really, really did need some booze to tolerate the rest of this day, and no minion of SHIELD was going to stop him.

Maybe he is in a worse mood than he'd thought.

This was why he needed that beer.

A light itching between the shoulder blades has Thor turning to look back the way he came. The hallway is empty, but Thor has a pretty good idea what caused it, for it is an incredibly familiar sensation.

With a huff, Thor continues on his way, letting his nose and sometimes the odd agent (when they are being truthful) guide him.

* * *

**Fury**

* * *

Fury internally sighs as he watches the larger than expected Thor walk away, "Stark, what the hell is he talking about?"

Stark retracts his helmet and replies, "He never said anything about a 'quest' ," Stark makes air quotes with his metal fingers, "to me."

Fury raises an unimpressed eyebrow. He refuses to believe Stark doesn't have at least some idea. According to Natasha's report they'd reached some sort of 'understanding' on top of the Jet, and that the large god had been completely uncooperative otherwise.

After Coulson's report from New Mexico Fury had hoped that, if Thor ever returned to Earth, he could be convinced to defend the planet as part of the Avengers Initiative. He'd been reported as stable, dependable, and a heavy hitter. Much more desirable to have on the team than Stark or Banner, even if he wasn't from Earth and therefore would have split loyalties.

But now Fury is questioning if such an offer should be made. Not if this is the result of whatever fallout happened between him and his brother on Asgard.

"He might have said something about beer." Stark relents, still susceptible to the 'disappointed look' Fury had used on him in the past.

Fury fought the urge to sigh again. Just what he needed in a crisis. An alcoholic. He's about to order Stark to go and stop him when Coulson arrives and advises, "Sir, according to Agent Romanov's report, we should partially indulge him, if we want his full cooperation."

He doesn't hold the sigh in this time.

"Stark just-" He does his best to keep the extent of his frustration from showing, for any hesitation in front of a man like Stark is asking for trouble, "Make sure he ends up in the briefing room."

"What? Me? Why are you asking-" Stark sputters.

"For some reason, he thinks you're friends. No idea how you managed that."

"I just met the guy!" Stark is now indignant, on the defensive.

"Look, whatever you did. Keep doing it." Fury points a stern finger at him, if Stark succeeded before, then he should be able to find some way to again.

"Now go get him, he's..." Fury looks to agent Coulson who helpfully finishes his sentence, "Heading towards the mess hall, accosting agents for directions along the way."

"And I'm supposed to do the same?" Stark sarcastically asks.

He's tempted to say yes, but knows leaving Stark alone and unattended in their base is asking for trouble.

"Coulson will join you." Fury concedes.

"This way Mr. Stark. I can also show you to a secure place to store your armour."

Fury watches as they walk off in the direction Thor had taken. He hates having so little of this situation under his control. Once they are out of sight, he finally turns towards the green clothed god in the Hulk's cage. Their captive is peering off in the direction Thor had walked with a contemplative look on his face.

It is very concerning how easy it was to capture Loki. He obviously wanted to be caught. Regardless of whatever his play is, surely they'd be able to get enough information out of him to make this worthwhile. Not to mention the fact that this was the best opportunity to show the WSC the necessity of the Avengers Initiative.

Loki is confident. Too confident. Being underestimated is their main advantage right now, and Fury is going to use it.

But first, he has a god to threaten.

He walks up to the control panel, leather coat swirling as he walks, "In case it's unclear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass..."

Dark fingers reach for a button, opening a hatch under the cell. A strong wind gusts up the opened hole, sending his heavy coat fluttering wildly. It's times like this he's glad he doesn't have hair.

"Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!"

Fury closes the hatch. Points at Loki. "Ant." Then points at the button which would drop Loki into the steel trap. "Boot."

* * *

Author's Note: Almost posted these as separate chapters, but then I realized how short they would be :P Hope you enjoyed!

Next chapter is the conversation in the briefing room, which was one of the main scenes that inspired me to start writing this fic in the first place. :)


	7. Thor 4

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait! Thank you for the reviews, they kept me going while I was struggling. Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

In a weird, unexpected way, this was almost freeing. Thor isn't putting on his usual, princely act. He's acting true to his feelings. Even while pretending to be his younger self, grieving for his dead brother.

He almost feels guilty for the sympathy Stark had shown him as they quested.

Coulson had been a bit of a surprise. He'd forgotten all about him, and for this he definitely feels guilty. Though that pesky feeling was quickly fixed once he got his hands on some beer.

Thankfully he had been able to limit his reaction to, "Son of Coul! You're alive!" And not add the words, 'I forgot you died here.'

Thankfully Coulson didn't seem to think it strange and said, "Thank you for your concern. I too am glad to have survived." While looking at Stark for some strange reason.

Thor had managed to save himself from awkward questions then by asking, "How long has it been for you?"

"About a year," Coulson calmly answered.

"Why? You trying to say time is different for you up in space?" Stark asked, almost making Thor panic before he noticed Stark was being sarcastic. Only his years of knowing the man had him realizing in time, otherwise he might have taken him literally and said the wrong thing.

"Felt longer." He'd grunted, hating the reminder that none of his friends here knew him. Thankfully, he was saved from any further melancholy by finding the 'mess hall' as Coulson called it.

There'd been nothing 'messy' about it but he'd long learned to roll with Midgar's strange idioms.

Now, Thor is carrying multiple beers in his free had, Mjolnir dangling from his wrist, while drinking from a bottle with the other. Extra beers were also stashed in his red robe's pockets. The bottles clinking as Thor walks. It's loud enough that Thor almost misses it when Coulson leans closer and speaks.

"Thor, I'm sorry to tell you this but, Loki has Erik Selvig under his control." Thor grimaces before taking a hearty swig of his beer. Erik had never been quite the same afterwards, according to Jane.

"Wait, you know the astrophysicist?" Stark interrupts.

"Oh yeah, Erik. Good guy." Thor nods, wishing they could hurry up and reach the rest of the Avengers so he could just sit back and let the others do the talking.

"As soon as Loki took the doctor we moved Jane Foster."

"The other astrophysicist?" Stark cuts in again.

"Jane! She's the best! We used to date, you know." He explains to Stark, before he can stop himself. Unfortunately, boasting about Jane is too ingrained a habit, especially to Stark, even if they aren't dating anymore...

Oh no. They are still dating at this time, aren't they?

"Or wait, we are still dating, yes -of course. Haven't seen her in a long time." Thor quickly tries to deflect, voice cracking at the end. As much as he kept trying to brush the break-up off, in truth it had completely blindsided him. He should have seen it for the ill omen that it was. Nothing good happened to him after that.

Coulson gains a mildly alarmed look to his face. It makes Thor briefly doubt himself. Did he have things mixed up? Were they dating? Hadn't she slapped him the next time Thor was on Midgard?

Thankfully he is saved from his growing panic by Coulson calmly explaining, "We've got an excellent observatory in Traunsee. She was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe."

Thor grunts and pats Coulson on the shoulder, it's a little awkward with his hand full of beer bottles but he manages, hoping to convey his thanks without saying anything. He does not trust his voice at the moment, and takes another drink.

Thankfully, he can now hear familiar voices up ahead. They are now approaching the room where the rest of the Avengers are talking. Thor's steps slow while Stark's speed up.

Is he ready to face a room full of people that will see him as a stranger?

Thor can hear Banner asking the room, "Irridium. What did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Stark replies, having timed his entry perfectly. Thor and Coulson follow in behind him. "Take a load off, King Arthur." Stark points to the large table where the rest of the Avengers are sitting.

Thor takes one look at the arrangement, and pauses. Natasha is sitting in the chair closest to them. At the far end of the table, Rogers sits in his old bright uniform. Between them, Banner stands instead of sits, leaving four open chairs.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Stark continues, while making his way over to the command area. He starts pressing buttons, everyone's attention on him, except for Thor, who's debating where to sit.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Stark starts to touch the screens, moving things around.

Thor uses everyone's inattention to walk to the chair in front of Banner. He flings an arm out, a reflexive gesture, but Banner flinches at the motion. Thor quickly offers the man a drink of his half finished beer instead.

Banner holds his hands close to his chest and quietly says, "Uh, no thanks. Not a good idea for me." Smiling awkwardly his eyes quickly flick back to Stark.

Thor shrugs and absently pats him on the back, pulling the chair out with a slight screech.

Stark is still talking, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."

"Can we get back on topic here?" Rogers is frowning, "Thor, do you know what Loki wants? What's he planning?"

Ugh. So much for sitting back and drinking, they expect him to explain things. What had Loki been after again? It felt like a lifetime ago. Hanging around mortals did that to a god.

He takes a deep, fortifying breath. All right, he can do this.

"Something dumb like," Thor takes a quick sip from the bottle, "becoming the King of Midgard, I think." He then slightly raises his voice, unable to help himself, "Which is a dumb plan!"

If Loki had done any of his usual research, he would've seen how divided this realm was. While it would probably be possible to rule with legions of loyal soldiers and vassals, the Chitauri made for poor enforcers. Thor may have thrown the idea around in his head when he grew tired of the constant squabbling of the realm. But he never brought it up with his friends, not wanting them to associate him with his brother's past actions.

"He'd need an army for that." Natasha comments, clasping her hands where they lay on the table, "Thor, is that what the portal is for?"

Thor sighs and takes another swig of beer to give himself time. Why are they asking him so many questions. He mostly remembers them all talking amongst themselves and not needing much of his input. This is such a drag.

"It's just the Chitauri." He explains.

"And what's a Chitauri?" Stark asks, finally turning his attention away from the monitors and spinning to face Thor like all the others.

"Insecty, flying creatures. Ugly faces. From beyond the Nine Realms." Thor explains. "Anyway, it's not like they're hard to beat. They are like, the suckiest army, I think someone said." Thor looks around the table, trying to remember who that was, then gives up and raises his voice, "You hear that brother! Suckiest! Army!" He lowers his voice and continues, "Just destroy the mother ship and they'll all go- bleugh" He flops his free hand on the table for emphasis.

Everyone stares at him silently.

He nods to himself, taking another drink as reward for a job well done.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Hill asks tightly.

"I dunno." Thor shrugs, slouching a little more and finishing the bottle.

He ignores their stares and puts the empty bottle carefully on the table. Some of his long blond hair falls over his shoulder, getting in his face. He flips it back into place, careful not to disturb his sunglasses and reaches for another bottle.

"Should he really be-?" Banner starts to ask from behind him.

The bottle hisses as Thor pops the cap off using the edge of the table. He's not looking up, so doesn't see what causes Banner to halt his question.

Steve clears his throat in a familiar sign that he is uncomfortable and asks, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source for the portal?"

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

Banner and Stark begin to talk in their science gibberish, letting Thor relax and slouch further in his seat. They don't need him for the rest of this. He's told them about the Chitauri, and they figured out the rest without him last time, didn't they?

This whole pretending not to know stuff was both hard and easy. He'd almost given Banner a hug, remembering at the last second that it probably would have been seen as weird, even if it was good to see his old friend. Thankfully he was able to cover the motion with offering him a beer.

No one here knows him so it's easy to get away with small mistakes like that. Ugh... maybe he should've hugged Banner anyway. They wouldn't know it was too familiar. And he kinda wanted one.

Thor brings his attention back to the room when Nick Fury walks in and says, "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him."

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Rogers comments.

Fury replies, "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." He turns to Thor and pointedly says, "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor knows he should say something, but needs a second to think, startled that Fury is asking him something.

Thankfully Steve buys him a couple by piping up, "I understood that reference!"

When all the eyes turn back to him too soon, he needs longer than a few seconds to think of what to say. He takes multiple gulps of beer, holding up his free hand in a 'give me a sec' gesture. He can't tell them that the sceptre is the mind stone, he's pretty sure. So what can he say?

Panicked, he puts the second empty bottle of beer aside and settles lamely on, "I dunno." Adding a careless shrug.

"You're both Asgardian, so shouldn't you know?" Oops. He's made Natasha mad. But wait. What did she call him?

"What? Asgardian? Why're you still calling us that? It's weird." He points and squints at her form behind his sunglasses. Everyone around him exchange looks.

Coulson steps forward from where he'd been lurking on the sidelines, "Well, Thor. What we mean is that you are from Asgard. In our language, adding 'ian' to the end means that is where you are from."

"No," He refutes, "when talking about where I am from, you should say 'of Asgard'. Don't see me going around calling you all...Earthians or something." Thor grumbles, starting to get annoyed, and leaping on the chance to change the topic.

"Then... what is the correct term?" Coulson politely asks.

"We are Aesir." Thor points to himself for emphasis, "Aesir." Points to Coulson, "Human." Points to himself, "God." Points to them, "Mortal. S'not hard."

Some of them get pinched looks on their faces. Thor's starting to get on a bit of a roll here, this was something that had always aggravated him but he never bothered to correct in the past. He'd assumed it was a translation problem with the All Speak. But now that he understands English on its own, for the most part, it is really annoying.

Stark begins, "While all of this is fascinating, I'm sure, Doctor Banner let's-"

"And Loki's not Aesir anyway." He interrupts, unable to stop himself. "But he's still of Asgard. See how it works?"

"Then what is he? Anything we can use?" Fury jumps in.

"He's adopted." Thor waves off explaining, voice gaining volume as he continues, "And it's really not a big deal. Lots of people are adopted! No reason to be such a big baby about it!"

The others don't seem to know how to respond, while Thor is starting to feel a little better. It felt good to get that last bit out.

Natasha is the first to breach the silence, "Why do you keep raising your voice? You know he's too far away to hear you."

Uh oh. Do they not know what Loki can do? Surely he'd told them at some point...

"Well... he is a witch. It's what they do. You can tell because - because he dresses like one!" He finishes childishly.

"Will you shut up!" Loki cries, materializing in the room.

He appears standing near the entrance, off to one side with his back to the wall. His teeth are clenched and bared, fists shaking, obvious signs that he has been trying to hold his temper in for quite a while now.

Oops?

Everyone freaks out. All the agents have guns drawn and pointed at Loki with surprising speed. Banner immediately starts to back away while Rogers leaps from his seat to put himself between the two of them.

Before anyone can do anything more, Thor whips an empty bottle of beer at his brother, the bottle going through Loki's body and smashing against the wall.

All the shouting stops.

Oh yeah, it wasn't until he was spending more time on Midgard and hunting that snake organization that he'd told them more detailed stories of Loki's abilities. Oh well, now they know.

"It's fine. Illusions are like, his thing." Thor assures them. Though they don't look very reassured.

Loki is frowning down at the broken glass but then looks up and scowls at Thor's statement.

"How dare you." He growls, "I've seen worlds you've never known! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and you sit there, spewing childish taunts, a fat slob, a disgrace to the-"

Loki cuts out at the sound of a sharp hiss. The hiss is followed by the rustling sound of plastic.

It is so hard. Listening to his brother's hateful rant. Thor needs a distraction, badly, so pops another beer open with one hand while digging out a candy bar from his red cloak's pocket with the other.

Can't they just skip to the part where Loki opens the portal and the Avengers defeat him? Then Thor can send Loki back to Asgard and find a hole to spend the next few years hiding and drinking in.

"Oh how the mighty have fallen." Loki grandly mocks. "Don't tell me this is the result of Odin telling you the truth of what I am." He ends on a sneer, heavy sarcasm in his tone.

Thor takes a big bite of his candy bar, stalling for time. He has no idea what to say to his brother. He really hadn't meant to goad Loki into revealing himself. He'd known his brother was listening in, known that Loki had been following him from the moment Thor left him in the cage. Maybe... maybe the constant prickling of the hairs on the back of his neck had led to his increasingly childish remarks.

A whispered conversation is being had around him and all the agents still have weapons drawn on Loki. Some of the agents have even begun to circle the room. To what end Thor has no idea.

"How are we sure the real one is in the cage?" Stark hisses at Fury.

"He's still in there." Thor assures them, voice slightly garbled by the food still in his mouth, surprising everyone in the room, even Loki.

"Are you saying he can do this over long distances?" Fury demands, his perpetual frown still in place.

"Why'd you assume he can't?" Thor asks, perplexed. Grateful for the distraction from his brother. "Our mother taught him to do all sorts of clever-"

"Oh, my tricks are clever now are they?" Thor can't quite stop his shoulders from hunching at that. "Perahps your mother thought it was fitting, a way to signal to others of the-"

"That is not why and you know it." Thor growls, outraged that he would slander her so readily. If it was their father, that'd be fine, Thor was still pissed at him for his lies, but their mother did not deserve to be lumped in with him.

"Do I, Thor?" Loki spread his hands mockingly, then snarls, "Do I?"

"Of course-" Thor struggles to speak, trying to keep his surging anger and grief under control. His emotions were such a mess, and had been ever since he'd landed here. They'd flare up with no control from him, all the efforts he'd made during his years on earth washed away.

He's so focused on Loki now, he completely forgets about the other Avengers. Only peripherally aware of the soft shuffling of feet behind him.

"Don't you dare besmirch her name or disparage all she did for you." Thor's hands are starting to shake. Not a good sign, a part of him knows. But Loki is dishonouring their mother's memory. Something he'd never done in Thor's presence before. After an honourable death, it's just not done, especially of their Queen Mother.

And not after he'd just been forced to say goodbye to her.

"Maybe you're right." Loki sneers, "As a pawn to Odin, she had no choice but to nurse a false child-"

"Shut up! Do not speak of our mother that way!" Thor lunges to his feet, electricity sparking down his arms, his eyes briefly flashing white with power. All those still touching the table jerk to their feet, shocked by the surge. Loki rears back, fear flashing over his face.

She was the wisest person on Asgard. Say what you will of Father, that lying asshole, but don't you dare doubt she lov- loved you." His voice breaks at the end. He'd left his Mother to her death, unable to do anything, she refused to let him do anything. And here Loki is, denigrating her name, the one person on Asgard who never gave up on him.

That's it. He can't take this anymore. Time for a strategic retreat, before he says something he shouldn't. He's sober enough to know talking to Loki any longer is dangerous.

He grabs the last empty bottle on the table and whips it at Loki as he stands. His mortal friends flinch but he's too focused on keeping the thunder beneath his skin to notice. He does, however, notice that a white faced Loki allows his illusion to fade.

In an effort to wrench his mind away from his brother Thor walks past Rogers towards his old friend.

"Come Banner! Stark! Let us begin the hunt for the Tesseract. I shall share with you what tales of it I can." Thor wraps an arm around Banner's shoulders, half-empty beer bottle dangling in his hand, Mjolnir still strapped to his wrist. Banner is giving him a wide-eyed, shocked look but Thor ignores it, determined to leave. The scientist stumbles slightly while trying to keep up with him but Thor's grip is firm and prevents him falling.

All the other mortals, bar Stark, tense even more at his action.

Banner's hands flutter up to lightly try to push Thor's arm off. He then starts to wring them when Thor doesn't acknowledge the attempt, busy steering them around the table and away form where Loki's illusion had stood, knowing his friend will give in.

The bearded god had forgotten how fidgety the other Avenger was in the beginning, he'd gotten used to the chill man from Sakaar. To give the man's twisting hands something to do, Thor presses his half-eaten bar into them, causing the man to still in his squirming.

Thor guides them towards Stark, who darts ahead when Thor raises an arm to do the same to him.

No one stops them as they leave the room, and Thor breathes a sigh of relief when no one follows, not even Loki.


	8. Banner

Author's Note: I'm on a bit of a roll now so gonna post while I can! Thanks for all for your words of encouragement, they kept me writing :) To those of you who asked, Loki's perspective is pending, and that should answer your comments ;)

Stay safe everyone!

* * *

Bruce Banner shuffles along next to the Norse god, nervously playing with the large Mars bar forced into his hands. He has to assume that Thor doesn't know that he put the whole ship in danger by surprising him. At least everyone in the briefing room had thought so.

Bruce knows he has good control, he knows there was no danger. Everyone else on the other hand... well, looks like his scare tactic with the red haired agent in India really had shown exactly how terrified of him they were.

Why had they brought him on board then? It made Bruce doubt the assertion that he was just here to find the Tesseract even more. But he's more resigned than surprised that they probably plan to use him as a weapon.

He'd read the packet on the supposed Norse god, of course he had. They hadn't shown him the information they had on the Hulk, so he had no idea what the other's had read about him, but he'd taken what was said about Thor with a grain of salt. Beings that called themselves gods? It was just a bit too unbelievable.

Or so he'd thought. Right up until the thunder god's demonstration back there.

The electricity arcing off his body could maybe be explained away by some set up hidden by his clothes. The glowing eyes and the clap of thunder as he'd slammed his hands on the table however... not to mention the walking and talking illusion the brother made... Well he was just going to keep an open mind about it from now on is all.

The man himself was not at all what Bruce had been expecting. And not just because of the change in appearance from the pictures taken a year ago. The soft plaid pants, baggy grey sweatshirt, and red robe all spoke of a lack of caring about his appearance. That plus the compulsive eating and drinking... did not paint a very good picture.

This was someone they were supposed to rely on? He was a complete disaster.

But it looked like they had no choice. They were dependent on a mood-swinging depressed brother to help them against his 'bag-of-cats' adopted brother.

However, Bruce had to give the blond god some credit. He very obviously did not want to be here, and yet was still helping them. Bruce knew what it was like. And while he may sympathize with the way the drunkard was feeling, he really wasn't comfortable being on the receiving end of his coping mechanisms.

Thankfully Tony Stark starts to distract him as soon as they leave the briefing room. Of all the people here, he'd been quite nervous to meet the man, having read some incredibly unfaltering things about him, in addition to the brilliant things. But now he is so distracted trying to keep up with his rapid fire thoughts, those reservations are all but forgotten.

Once the initial shock has worn off, he decides he can't let Tony Stark continue to distract him. They are almost at the lab. He needs to tell Thor about the 'other guy'.

As much as he doesn't understand why someone who's from a warrior culture, according to the packet, has taken such a liking to him, he needs him to be aware of how serious the danger is that Bruce poses. He really doesn't want Thor to react badly if he's surprised by Bruce's transformation.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, so glad there's someone who speaks English on this ship." Mr Stark says, pausing from his position ahead of the awkwardly shuffling Bruce and Thor to point down the two branching corridors with a head tilt to implicitly ask which way to go.

"Left. Listen, Thor." Bruce changes topics, "There's uh, something you should know about me." Bruce tries to pry the big arm from his shoulders again, but it doesn't budge. If anything, Thor pulls him in even closer. "Did SHIELD tell you about the Hulk?"

"Hm? Hulk?" The tipsy god exclaims, looking up from where he's been glaring at the ground. "Course I know Hulk! He's a good guy." Bruce boggles at the friendly smile thrown at him. "Good friend. Will be- I mean." Thor corrects, looking shifty, "I'm sure he will be a good friend."

Before Bruce can properly process the weird way Thor phrased that, the bigger man gives Bruce a little friendly shake, a big grin splitting his bearded face. The action has all of the passing agents in the hall tensing, while Bruce can only blink in shock. Though he's not so surprised that he doesn't notice the sharp, assessing look Mr. Stark is giving them, with no trace of fear.

Bruce opens his mouth, but no sound comes out. Struggling to give voice to all the reasons why what the god just said was wrong. "There is nothing good about the other guy!" He manages to blurt.

"Don't worry!" Thor takes another big swig of beer, maybe noticing the looks they are getting, or maybe how uncomfortable Bruce is feeling. The big man is incredibly hard to read.

"I'm like- like a- a raging fire, and Hulk is like a small, smouldering fire." He peers mismatched eyes over dark sunglasses at Bruce and says, voice grave, "You tell him that."

Bruce nods jerkily, unsure how to respond once again and sends a wide-eyed look Mr. Stark's way when the big man brakes eye-contact. Stark shrugs sympathetically, but also looks like he's happy not to be on the receiving end of Thor's weirdness.

"Stark!" Until Thor addresses him, "I'm the strongest Avenger. Alright. That's my code name. Don't you forget it." Thor points at Stark almost menacingly with his beer bottle.

"Right." Mr. Stark looks like Bruce feels. Completely nonplussed.

Thankfully, Bruce is spared from having to come up with another way to convince Thor to stop manhandling him. They've reached his lab and Thor immediately removes his arm from across Bruce's shoulders.

"Finally! Time to play!" Mr. Stark practically bounces into the lab.

Bruce is not proud of what he does next. He scuttles behind the work station with the sceptre on it, putting it and the monitors between him and the other two.

Thor doesn't appear to notice, but Mr. Stark sure does, given the raised eyebrow. Bruce flushes slightly in embarrassment and refuses to make eye contact. He busies himself by setting up the gamma reader to begin scanning the sceptre.

The candy bar Thor had given him, and that he'd been nervously playing with the whole walk to the lab, is put to the side. In a weird way, he is grateful Thor had given it to him. It'd given him something to physically distract himself with while Mr. Stark had mentally engaged him.

Wait... Had that been on purpose? No. That was ridiculous. He'd just met Thor, it was impossible for him to know that it would help.

A screech has him wincing and forces him to glance over at the Norse god. The long haired man is dragging one of the chairs across the room into the corner. It places him on the other end of Bruce's workstation, with the sceptre between them.

As soon as it's in place, he plops himself heavily into the seat, slouching so deeply it makes Bruce wince in sympathy for his poor back. Thor puts his now empty bottle on the ground, and takes a new one out of a pocket from his red robe. He then twists off the top on a bottle Bruce is sure wasn't designed to be a twist-off.

"Don't mind me." He belches. "You two-" he waves a hand at Bruce and Mr. Stark, "Do your thing. Pretend I'm not even here." The last almost sounds like a plea.

Bruce and Mr. Stark exchange a brief silent conversation. The other man looks like he's practically bursting with questions, but reluctantly nods in agreement when Bruce shakes his head. Thor had promised to tell them about the Tesseract, but Bruce isn't surprised to hear it had been an excuse. That lightning he'd lit up with had been... quite something.

"Well Dr. Banner, you get started on those readings, and I'll begin the analysis..."

Bruce is surprised how easy it is to fall into a rhythm with the other man, and is grateful for it. This whole scenario is just asking for trouble. He wants to enjoy the peace while it lasts.

The biggest worry on his mind, once they stop whatever Loki has planned, is how is he going to escape SHIELD after everything is over? They can shout about how they only want him for his gamma radiation expertise until they are blue in the face, but Bruce knows that's just a bonus. If they seriously just wanted a gamma expert, they'd have called in Betty Ross.

No, they want the Hulk. And he wishes he had an answer to how he could keep them from getting the other guy. At least one that didn't result in multiple deaths.

And although the packet on Thor didn't explicitly state it, Bruce can read between the lines, he knows SHIELD is hoping Thor can contain him. However, it is hard to imagine the soft man holding his own against the Hulk. Maybe if he was ripped with huge muscles...

He pushes those thoughts and worries from his mind. There's nothing he can do about it now. Better to focus on his work and be as unassuming as possible.

Now that he has the sceptre to analyze and can compare it to the data SHIELD had given him on the cube, he can easily spot the similarities between the two. He's even more glad that Mr. Stark is here and they aren't putting all of the work on him. Processing this on his own would be a nightmare.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract." He informs Mr. Stark, "But it's gonna take weeks to process."

The man is quick to answer from where he's been pacing between screens, "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

Bruce maybe should be surprised at the suggestion they not bother using the hardware SHIELD is providing them with. But then it also looks like he might not be the only one who has reservations about SHIELD.

"All I packed was a toothbrush." He says self deprecatingly. He can't stop himself from glancing at Thor, who's breath he'd gotten a good whiff of.

"Well it's more than he brought." Mr. Stark points directly to the slouched god, who doesn't react to being addressed. Bruce blinks a bit at the way the man is almost cradling his hammer like a child would a teddy bear. Hadn't the dossier stated it was a weapon of extreme power?

A loud snort, followed by a snore cut through the quiet of the lab.

Apparently he's actually asleep.

"Do you know what…?" Bruce gestures vaguely and helplessly at Thor.

Mr Stark steps around Bruce's desk. He uses their proximity to quietly say, "I know there's more going on here than we've been told. Loki's playing a big game but he actually looks like shit."

"Another Illusion?" Bruce instantly grasps his meaning.

A corner of Mr. Stark's mouth twitches up, "Exactly. And they had some sort of fight about eyes on the jet. Big guy over there might have some of the answers but he clammed up whenever I tried to ask on our way here. And you saw what happened earlier."

Mr Stark hums, "But he seems to like you." Bruce does not like the assessing look he is being given. "Tell you what, why don't we-"

Abruptly Mr. Stark cuts himself off and instead says, "Anyway, you should come to Stark Tower sometime." He raises his voice and walks behind and past Bruce, leaving him reeling from the sudden change in subject.

"Uh?" Bruce keeps his eyes on his screen, uncertain what just happened.

Is Mr. Stark suddenly offering him a job…?

"Ow!" He jumps and presses a hand to his side at the sudden sting.

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Captain America walks in, while behind him one of the agents hovers in the background.

Ah, he realizes. So that's why Mr. Stark changed the subject. Doesn't stop him from glaring at the other man.

Though he is annoyed with Mr. Stark for shocking him, he's grateful for the implied meaning behind his words and actions. Maybe this won't end as badly as Bruce fears. Not if he really isn't quite as alone on this ship as he thought. Or as alone in his suspicions.


	9. Thor 5

Thor slouches in his soft comfy pants on the hard uncomfortable chair. Through his dark sunglasses, he absently watches Stark and Banner do their science stuff, while he attempts to be forgotten in a corner.

He wishes he had a bowl of chips or something to go with all the beer. If there was one thing he loved about his new body shape, it was the built in table that came with the larger stomach.

Banner tries his best to keep his distance from Thor, eyeing him as he runs a scanner over the sceptre, then moving quickly to the far end of the table to play with something on his screen. The man is more jittery than Thor is used to, sending him multiple nervous glances the whole time.

Which is sucky and just plain sad. He'd forgotten, or just never noticed, what Banner was like back when they first met.

Stark is working at the far end of the room, talking as he works, and giving Thor the odd look but doesn't say anything to him, to Thor's deep gratitude.

He leans his head against the glass at his back, the window overlooking a large room full of various flying craft. Thor closes his eyes, heaves a big sigh through his messy beard, and lets his friend's words wash over him.

It is both calming and comforting, after his explosion at Loki. He hadn't meant to do that of course. Thank the Norns Banner had been nearby. If he hadn't let Thor use him as a comforter, he didn't know what he would have done.

The walk to the lab while leaning on a friend for support, whether they knew it or not, was what he'd needed after that brief confrontation. A hug would have been better of course but... he really was trying hard not to be too familiar.

Ugh, where was Hulk when you needed him? He gave the best hugs.

He takes a deep breath, trying to calm his still racing heart.

He should've known better than to goad his brother. It had just been so hard, what with the constant prickling of his skin due to being watched.

Who knew what conclusions Loni was drawing from his outburst? Hopefully Thor hadn't said anything too incriminating… had he? Arg he couldn't remember. He'd been so angry that Loki would speak ill of their dead Mother…

Thor's hands convulsed, tightening their grip on Mjolnir.

Why'd his stupid brother say such horrible things? He'd never said them before! Thor knew how much he loved their mother. Thor had even counted on it when the whole dark elves thing had gone down. So why…? Wait... oh shit. Right. That hadn't happened yet.

Mother is still alive… For now.

Maybe he'd overreacted, just a teeny tiny bit, to his brother's words. But he still shouldn't have said them in the first place. Their father may have been a bad dad, looking at you big sis, but their mother had always supported the both of them.

Thor shifted in his seat, clutching Mjolnir a little closer to his chest. He relaxed back into the chair as much as he could, the emotional whiplash tiring him out more than usual.

He must doze off at some point, for he is startled awake by an angry "Ow!" from Banner.

Thor opens a bleary eye, slightly concerned. Stark is now standing between Thor and Banner, something long, metal, and pointy in his hand. The two of them are staring at each other, while Banner has one hand pressed to the side of his stomach.

"Hey!" Rogers calls, striding into the lab.

"Nothing?" Stark motions towards Banner at the question.

"Are you nuts?" Roger's voice gets louder, until Thor can see him standing on the other side of Banner's table with his open blue eye.

"Jury's still out." Stark replies, but his attention is still on Banner.

Thor takes a drink of now lukewarm beer he'd put to the side while he watches the back and forth. Rogers' eyes briefly flick over to him, but then he's back to frowning at Stark.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Rogers asks Stark.

"Funny things are." Stark dismisses him.

Thor furrows his bushy brows at the dismissive and confrontational tones Stark and Rogers are each using. Weren't they supposed to be friends?

But then, Thor hadn't really paid too much attention to the interactions of his new shield brothers back in the beginning. He'd been too worried about Loki and the need to bring him back to Asgard. He only started to be around them for extended periods of time during the quest for the lost sceptre.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." If possible, Rogers' frown gets even more serious and pronounced, glancing at Thor once again. Possibly including him in that statement. Thor doesn't remember him being this uptight either, he needs to chill out.

"No offence, doctor."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle... pointy things." Banner assures.

Thor closes his eye and tunes out the rest of the conversation. Bla bla Fury's hiding something bla bla.

He doesn't really care. If it had happened last time, then they don't need his input. He remembers an argument happening in this room at some point, so figures he should just stick around until then.

Only problem with that, of course, is he's stuck here until then. The other option is going to talk to his now green-eyed brother and... never mind. His heart starts to beat faster at just the thought of it. Bad idea. He'll just stay here.

Anyway, hadn't Banner turned into the Hulk at some point? He vaguely remembers fighting him down in the room behind him with all the flying craft, but can't remember when exactly it happened. Or why.

As the three mortals talk around him, Thor's thoughts inevitably drift to Loki once again. He can't seem to stop himself. What is he going to do with his brother? It appears he can't help riling him up, or being riled in turn. It's not like he means to. It just… happens.

Thor's been doing his best to ignore the conversation going on around him, but his ears prick up at Loki's name.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed."

Thor makes a face at that, eyes still closed. Loki is here because Thor had declared to all the nine realms that Midgard was under his protection. So wrecking it would show the rest of the realms just how little the Prince's protection was worth.

It does make Thor wonder though. Was that why he'd been the one sent by **that guy**? To better disguise from Asgard the true purpose of the invasion attempt, one of those stone thingys. For if the All Father became aware that someone was seeking out the Infinity Stones, he would bring the full might of Asgard to bear against them.

It could not be coincidence that only after Asgard was weakened by Ragnarok, that Thanos approached the Nine Realms.

Ugh… why is Midgard ale so weak, Thor grimaces. He thought he'd felt a good buzz after the first four bottles, but it passed a lot quicker than normal. He doesn't want to be thinking about that kind of shit. It was the whole point of the drinking!

And now he badly needs to piss.

"Thor," He startles slightly at his name. And at the source. When had the Son of Coul joined them? "Fury wants to know if you are willing to obtain the location of the Tesseract from Loki."

"Hm?" Thor squints his eyes open, taking in the four men. Banner's head is down, typing away and focused on his monitor. Stark is standing on the opposite side of the table, closer to Rogers with an unimpressed look on his face. The Son of Coul is standing just inside of the door.

"What?" He asks, off put by the question.

"I don't know how it's done on Asgard." The Son of Coul carefully says in that unassuming way of his, "I was hoping you would help us out. So, what can we, or you, do to make him tell us its location."

Oh yeah, he'd been pretty pissed at SHIELD for suggesting torture last time. He'd had to completely forbid it. Obviously such things were just not done to royals. Or so he'd thought. SHIELD hadn't agreed.

He loved midgardians. He really did. But sometimes they said the most shocking things.

"Make?" Stark jumps in, "Just what are you asking him to do?"

Thor watches Rogers rear up defensively and speaks before an argument can start, "Doesn't matter. One does not 'make,' " He uses air quotes around their euphemism for torture, "Loki do anything. No unless-" He cuts himself off, forces himself not to dwell on the source of the blue eyes he'd rid his brother of, and continues, "Nope. Not happening. He's still a Prince of Asgard."

"Could you at least talk to him? As one Prince to another?" Coulson entreats.

"You can't trust anything he'd say anyway. He's a lying snake." Thor tries to get them to drop it.

It doesn't work. Coulson keeps looking at him expectantly. Everyone is looking at him now, even Banner.

Thor sighs, "He wont do anything to help. Father pulled some sucky shit with him and now Loki wants to just wreck my shit. It's like the old bastard learned nothing from last time!" Thor slumps back in his seat.

"Last time?"

"Huh?" Thor looks around at them. Right. These weren't his friends. He keeps forgetting and getting forcefully reminded. "S'nothing." He adjusts Mjolnir to avoid their gazes.

Everyone is still looking at him expectantly and he suddenly can't stand it. He can't stand even being in the same room anymore. He doesn't know why. Only that there are too many of them. He feels jittery. He needs some space.

He lurches to his feet and announces loudly, "Gonna take a piss."

Rogers looks a little disgusted as he passes him, while the Son of Coul calmly stops blocking the door.

"And don't follow me!" He announces to the room, just to be on the safe side.

* * *

Poor Thor, he just wants to sit and drink his beer in peace.

Next up: What Loki thinks of Thor's antics.


	10. Loki

Author's note: Loki has a lot of catching up to so he gets a nice long chapter! Thor is confusing the shit outta him so he's gotta take the time to puzzle his brother out.

Thank you so much for the reviews :D They've kept me focused on wrangling the ending into something satisfying. This fic will probably be 18 or 19 chapters long, so we are over halfway there now.

Enjoy!

* * *

Loki paces his mortal-made cell. A cell designed to hold a monster. How very fitting. And how predictable.

He paces slowly, trying to give off an air of boredom when in reality his mind is whirling in circles.

No matter how many times he mentally goes over the events of the last few hours, it just doesn't make sense. No matter what theory he comes up with as an explanation for Thor's behaviour, he just can't manage to make it all fit. Which is ridiculous! His brother is as predictable as Asgard's manufactured weather! This shouldn't be-

No. Loki shakes his head in annoyance at himself. Not his brother. Thor may still be in denial but Loki has come to accept the truth.

This is useless, he needs to calm himself and go through events in order. Maybe then he'll gain some clarity. Loki stops his pacing, closes his eyes and sends his mind back to when the mortals had first 'captured' him.

Everything had been going according to plan, more or less. Stark's appearance had been unexpected. Unexpected but very welcome. He foolishly hadn't taken into account how similar in appearance and manner the mortal champion Captain America would be to his hated ex-brother. The plan had been to lose dramatically to the man. But once they'd begun to fight, Loki had found himself unable to let the blond man win. He hadn't been able to admit it in the moment, but he can see that now.

What he also hadn't expected was for Thor to show up to defend Midgard. The Rainbow Bridge was destroyed! By the idiot's own hand no less! Loki had gleefully imagined the look on Thor's face as he was forced to watch Loki conquer the realm Thor had put under his protection.

So his dread when he'd felt the true nature of the thunderstorm that had engulfed the mortal's quaint little flying ship was completely justified. However his anticipation of the confrontation to come had quickly dissolved into indignation. And from there he'd only grown more angry as the thunderer appeared to avoid him!

It only proved to Loki that he was right to think his brother was ashamed. Ashamed to have a monster as a brother.

He was left to stew inside the craft for an intolerable amount of time. Getting more and more furious. And then his **false **brother finally graced him with his presence.

Thor hadn't been able to look him in the eye. Further proof that the golden boy of Asgard was ashamed.

Loki could only imagine the celebration Asgard had thrown at his death. It was how they'd always reacted when Thor returned to the palace after slaying a monster. Why would Loki's supposed death be any different? Unless Odin had hidden the truth of what occurred on the Bridge, not wanting to publicly admit his experiment in raising a monster as his own child had backfired so badly.

But then what could have happened to result in such a drastic change in Thor's appearance? And with the Rainbow Bridge destroyed how had Thor acquired such obviously mortal apparel?

His confusion had only fed into his rage on the jet, which was the only explanation for how easily he'd let himself be riled. He should have been calm and collected. Thor had no idea what Loki was planning. He should have been in complete control.

But he is self-aware enough to admit that he is **still **seething over how dismissive Thor had been over his true nature. If Loki didn't know better, he'd think Thor didn't care that they weren't really brothers! That he didn't care that their whole childhood together had been a lie! It was completely absurd!

No. He can't let himself get sidetracked again. He needs to focus on what happened.

Thor had been wearing mortal apparel. He'd gained Hogun levels of weight. He had scarring around his right eye. An obvious fake in its place that didn't match his natural blue. All of that could have easily been dismissed as the idiot going through some kind of new phase. The eye probably lost in a battle where he didn't have Loki to bail him out.

What couldn't be explained was… the absolute lack of care to both his hair and beard.

No Asgardian would dare to be seen in such an unkempt manner. Even though Loki no longer considered himself one of them, he hadn't been able to contain his own shock. If Thor had entered the mortal jet naked he'd have been less scandalized.

For a brief moment, he'd flattered himself and thought it was grief. Grief at his own death. The small part of himself that still believed in his brother so desperately wanted it to be true. But Loki knew better. Knew that couldn't be it. Why would he grieve the brother he'd thrown away? The brother he'd cast out of Asgard?

No. Something else must have happened. The question had then become, should he goad Thor into revealing it? Did he even care?

_Don't you dare doubt she lov- loved you. _

The only thing that could explain it was… no. That was impossible. He refused to believe it could be related to… No. Something else must have happened. Like- like… Loki cast about desperately for a better explanation.

No. He takes a deep breath and forces himself back on track.

Thor had said some very strange things, when Loki had sneered to cover how off balance he felt. Some could be explained away by Thor having watched events unfold from Asgard. The rest however was just...

Thor's dismissive attitude towards everything Loki had gone through was typical. He should not have been surprised by it. He'd figured when next they met, after Loki had conquered Midgard, that Thor would renounce him and treat him the same as the other monsters Thor had fought.

Denial had also been an option, of course, Loki had been ready to deal with that as well. He'd prepared all sorts of things to say to the idiot.

But for him to have expected Loki to have magically 'gotten over' everything in so short a period of time… To have everything he'd gone through from his unexpected regency to his fall and reinvention of himself dismissed…

Loki took another deep breath. He reached up and rubbed a faintly shaking hand over his head, carefully avoiding the place the oaf had hit him with Mjolnir.

Could the fat thunderer have realized what he'd done with that swing? Loki had assumed Thor was just spouting nonsense at first and was more concerned with how this strange erratic Thor could mess up his plans.

Now though... now his thoughts are clearer. Now he can look back to what Thor said in the jet and wonder... how had he known? How had his chronically oblivious brother noticed such a small detail?

It also made him wonder... had Heimdall been watching Loki this whole time? Had they known what had happened to him after he fell from the bifrost? Known and decided to leave him to his fate? The thought sat surprising poorly in his gut.

Thor had taken one good look at Loki's eyes and realized what was wrong. There was no other explanation for the determined cast to his face as he'd brought the hammer down. Though invoking their Mother as he did so was a touch over dramatic.

When Loki had recovered from the blow, it had been to the familiar feeling of Mjolnir pressing down on his chest. And of course, his glamour had been dispelled while he'd been unconscious. It took no more than a moment to restore, but the damage had already been done. The mortals now knew he wasn't as put together as he appeared. He could still play it to his advantage, but he hated showing any hint of his own weakness.

He'd spent the rest of the short flight ignoring the mortals and glaring at a snoring Thor. How dare he disrespect Loki by falling asleep. How dare he think that because Loki was weakened he didn't have to stay alert.

It had taken a supreme effort of will not to show Thor how foolish he was being. Not only because it would look childish and he didn't have the energy reserves. It could also completely derail his plan.

But how much of it was his plan and how much had been forced upon him by the sceptre and the Other?

Loki was still trying to sort out where his own desires ended and the Other's began when the mortals, plus Thor, had escorted Loki into the monster's prison. He'd maintained an aloof, slightly amused front while debating if he should allow them to cage him.

Not that it mattered, the mortals under his command had no reason to stop their end of the plan. Loki being freed from the sceptre's and the Other's influence should not affect them at all. So he'd decided to just sit back and wait to be freed.

The brief respite was time he needed to figure out what he would do next. Continue with the plan as if nothing had happened or...

But his desire to rest and plan had warred with a desire to follow this strange Thor. He hated the ingrained impulse, and it had made him hesitate. In the end, it was for the best he hadn't followed Thor physically, and had just sent a projection.

Said projection had followed Thor and the armoured mortal, Stark, in what Loki had assumed was a quest to thwart him. What other 'quest' would set Thor off in such a hurry? So of course he'd followed. This Thor was too unpredictable. He needed to know if Thor was going to tell them something or give them something that would accord them an advantage.

Instead, he'd been forced to watch as the fat, drunkard that his brother had become search through food storage containers for beer. It was so... undignified. At one point, he'd barely stopped himself from yelling at Thor for embarrassing not only himself, but the throne of Asgard.

Thankfully he remembered himself in time. Thor could disgrace the throne as much as he wanted. It was no longer Loki's business.

While his projection had followed Thor, SHIELD's Director Fury had threatened him, and he'd been suitably unimpressed with him. The performance was not his best, and it was difficult to muster the enthusiasm he'd had earlier, but he'd managed. He couldn't let any of them catch on that anything had changed.

But Thor had to know that something had changed. He was the one who'd done it! But then why hadn't Thor said anything in their little meeting about him? Did that mean that he hadn't known what it meant that Loki's eyes had been blue? But if that was true, how had he known exactly how to free him from the sceptre's influence?

He had to give up that line of thought and accept that sometimes the idiot's logic was beyond Loki's understanding.

Yet another discrepancy in Thor's behaviour was Thor's familiarity with the mortals. It was instantly obvious and yet completely one sided. It was suspicious. There had to be an obvious explanation. Thor wasn't that complicated. If only he could make them all fit into a coherent whole!

Thor's snide little comments had not helped Loki contain his steadily growing rage. All previous attempts at keeping a calm head had been completely blown out of the water.

How dare he belittle the pain Loki had been put through! What would he know, golden boy that he was? Not once had his abilities or his right to the throne been questioned. And yet Loki had put up with it his whole life!

Revealing his ability to project illusions of himself had been... unfortunate. Yet another detail of himself he hadn't wanted them to know.

_"She was the wisest person on Asgard. Say what you will of Father, that lying asshole, but don't you dare doubt she lov- loved you." _

Loki clenched his hands into fists, pushing down the tight feeling that kept building in his chest. It was only through supreme effort that he stopped himself from lashing out and wasting what little reserves of magic he had left.

Thor couldn't possibly mean… No. Loki shook his head violently. He'd know. Wouldn't he? He'd just somehow… know, if it had happened. So it couldn't have. He refused to believe it.

Even if it did explain Thor's disturbing lack of basic self-care. And his newfound desire to drink himself into oblivion. And his complete inability to care about anything Loki was doing.

But then what was Thor doing here? Shouldn't he be off getting revenge or something?

Loki frowned to himself as he remembered Thor's explosion of power. That was new. And could also be explained by… he shook his head. This Thor was obviously unstable if he was losing control of his powers so easily.

So once again Loki had followed Thor, this time at a greater distance, into the monster's lab. He told himself that if an unstable Thor set it off he wanted to be prepared.

He'd expected Thor to be boasting and goading the thing, eager to test himself against it and burn off steam. That was how he'd always treated monsters they encountered on their adventures.

Instead he appeared to be trying to befriend it. It was disgusting. And unsettling.

He'd hung back far enough he couldn't hear them, uncertain how Thor had known that Loki had been following him earlier. Loki can also now admit he was also mildly curious if the two mortals would be able to track the Tesseract. Their implements are primitive, but it might be possible.

When he noticed Thor appeared to be sleeping in the corner, his hand had twitched, centuries of playing tricks on an unsuspecting brother almost overwhelming him with the need to play one now.

No. Not his brother. Why does he keep making that mistake?

He continues to pace. Thor's grief and words are affecting him more than they should. He clenches his hands into fists, then forcibly relaxes them. It's useless. No matter how many times he goes over everything Thor has said and done, he still comes to the same impossible conclusion.

His heart is still racing. Why is it still- He needs to be calm. The past hour of quiet should have been enough to come up with a plan. He should not still be obsessing over what may or may not have happened to his fake family.

And why should he care! He shouldn't care about her! She'd lied to him his whole life! He'd thought she was different from the others but instead-

A soft noise has the real him spinning towards the door to his cage. Standing before it on the grating is Agent Natasha Romanov.

"There's not many people that can sneak up on me." He gathers himself and tries to cover how distracted he truly had been.

It wouldn't do for them to figure out he was still projecting himself into the other room. Though he wouldn't be surprised if they suspected. Not Thor of course, the idiot probably thinks he scared Loki off.

"But you figured I'd come." The redhead replies.

Yes he'd figured she'd be sent. Their attempt to get Thor down here had been laughingly futile. Thor never had the stomach for such acts, and that was something that hadn't changed.

He almost takes too long to reply, "After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

He can't quite muster up the zeal he'd had when facing down their Captain in Germany, but he makes a good attempt.

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton."

"I'd say I've expanded his mind." He keeps the distaste from his voice, but barely.

He can't let show his own bitterness over not having realized he'd had his own mind 'expanded.' Oh, the Other is going to pay for what he did. After everything that had happened he'd consoled himself with the thought that at least his mind had been his own. Apparently not.

"What happens to a mind after it's been 'expanded'? Once you've won?"

Obedience to the goals of the master, that's what happens. Little rebellions might be allowed, like Director Fury still being alive even after Barton shot him, but not otherwise. The control was too insidious for that.

Loki almost freezes at that thought, but manages to sneer at her, "Worried for him? Someone like you?"

He tries to control his racing heart, now racing for a different reason, not liking the conclusions his mind is making. He's doing this to hurt Thor, to prove his worth, that is all. Had they used the sceptre's power on him because they hadn't believed him when he'd sworn allegiance to the Titan?

"I owe him a debt." The spy admits.

By the Norns he's tired. Tired of this conversation and sickened by what he wouldn't let himself think about had happened to him. He almost longs for it again, longs for the surety and focus it brought. Then he could do away with the insidious worry for the woman who raised him and lied to him.

Up in the monster's lab Thor has long since returned from his trip to empty his bladder. But not without first taking a detour back to the mortal pantry. He's now spread his new spoils all around the table holding the sceptre, completely oblivious to its power.

Thor's making a complete mess of things but the monster has yet to say anything about it. He really doesn't understand why it tries so hard to play at being human.

They are speaking of weapons of war made with the Tesseract. Interesting. Barton never informed him of any such things. Had he not known? Or-

"You seem distracted. Worried for your brother?" The _'someone like you' _is left unsaid.

Loki sneers, of course he's not worried. Thor's grief has nothing to do with him. Absolutely nothing.

Then Thor says something that has him hissing in outrage, attention split between the spy and Thor. He can't help the, "Idiot!" That slips past his lips. Even if he appears completely changed, Thor's habit of running his mouth hasn't at all.

Is the moron trying to get everyone on this ship killed!?

"You're still watching him, aren't you?"

"What?" He asks, focusing back in on her, startled at being caught.

Agent Romanov taps her ear as she says. "You're spending a lot of focus on a brother you claim to hate."

Loki briefly considers denying it. But Thor is- arg! Even now! Why does it still feel like he's falling into old habits and 'managing' his brother?

"You should take better care of your monster." He mocks.

The woman stands immediately, looking alarmed. Good.

She turns her back to him and walks swiftly from the room.

"Loki is planning something with Dr. Banner and the Hulk. Tell Fury that..." Her voice cuts out as soon as the door closes behind her.

Wait. What? That's not what he said. Why did she-?

In a way she's right, while still connected to the sceptre he had planned on using it to make the monster transform. But with the connection severed by Thor he can't do it. And he has no interest in being trapped on this ship while Thor knocks it from the sky due to a 'friendly contest.'


	11. Thor 6

Thor is slouched over Banner's workstation, the spoils from his post-piss and impromptu questing spread out before him.

Stark and Banner are still quietly working away. Stark is tapping at multiple screens, a frown on his face. Banner was at first disgruntled when Thor unloaded his haul but is now tapping away as well.

He'd seen the sun rising through one of the few windows on his way back. It had been dark out when he arrived, so he's pretty sure he's been stuck here for a few hours now. Thankfully, he was able to sleep most of that time away.

He's tempted to try falling back asleep. Why can't things just hurry up? He hates it here. He slumps further on the table and starts picking at the label of an empty beer bottle.

Where's his younger self anyway? It'd probably create a huge mess, but it would take a huge load of responsibility off Thor's shoulders. He could just leave the rest of the invasion to young Thor and go drink Stark's bar dry or something.

Banner keeps looking over at him. Thor's been trying to ignore it, trying to remind himself that these aren't his friends, but maybe he's misunderstanding the looks? Thor bats aside some empty wrappers and picks up an unopened granola bar.

"Here." He holds out his arm, the offered food dangling halfway between them.

"Uhhh." Banner hesitates. As a younger man Thor probably would have gotten impatient, but he likes to think Midgard has had a positive impact on him in this sense. So he just waits.

"Sure." Banner hesitantly takes it. "Thanks."

Thor's head slumps back onto the table, not seeing the series of looks that pass between the other two men in the room. He goes back to picking at the label.

Why is it so bright in here? He's so glad for the sunglasses otherwise his headache would be even worse. Normally drinking more beer made it go away, but so far Thor's just been feeling worse and worse.

There's a rustle of a wrapper being opened, followed by a bit of silence once again. It doesn't last long however.

"So, Thor." Banner begins hesitantly. Thor peers at him from around his arm, his fake brown eye taking in the nervous twitching of his old friend. He tries and fails to stop himself from tensing.

"We- or I- I was wondering." Banner sends Stark a look. Thor doesn't bother to look up to see what the other man is doing. "You sounded familiar with the Tesseract. Do you know where it came from?"

Thor relaxes a bit at the question. He can do this. It's an easy question.

"Father hid it here a few centuries ago or something." He fudges the numbers a bit.

"Why would he do that?" Banner asks.

"Eh." Thor shrugged. "No one thought to look for it here, did they? T'was safe."

"Something that powerful? Left completely unguarded?" Banner asks skeptically.

Thor frowns, an instinctive reaction to whenever someone questions the decisions of the All Father. "That's not-" But wait. Why should he defend that man? Thor is intimately aware of the mistakes his Father has made over the years. He's paid for them heavily. All of Asgard has paid.

"Who knows what the old bastard was thinking." He ends up muttering, pulling another beer bottle over and opening it.

"Didn't want anyone else making weapons with it, as a guess?" Stark asks after a beat. Thor lifts his head to see the man has joined him and Banner, and is now pointing to Banner's monitor. On it are pictures of the type of projectile weapon favoured by the mortals as well as a title, Phase 2.

Thor squints at the images from behind his glasses. They remind Thor of the weapons their team had been faced with on their quest to reclaim the lost sceptre. Thankfully he manages to keep the thought to himself.

"What's this?" Banner asks Stark, looking alarmed.

"Looks like the reason SHIELD never brought me onto the project." Stark says, a grim cast to his mouth.

Banner sighs and says, "I wondered what was still keeping you so busy."

"I like to multi-task." Stark quips. "These things look like they'd do a lot of damage. And someone had the genius idea of storing them on this ship. That might be why Loki wanted to be-" Stark cuts off abruptly.

Thor looks up to see Banner leaning over the table to whisper, "we agreed, no mention of the L-word."

"Oh yeah. Right. No L-word." Stark looks at Thor nervously.

It takes a moment but Thor realizes they are trying not to say his brother's name. Did they think it would gain Loki's attention if they did? They seemed worried. He could just let them keep doing it, but what would be the harm in putting them more at ease?

So he says, "Oh you don't need to worry about my brother. Loki is like- totally afraid of you." And points to Banner.

"Huh? Me?" Banner looks absolutely dumbfounded.

"He is?" Stark asks.

Thor nods, ignoring the prickling at the back of his neck. "Well, yeah. Hulk can squish him like a bug. I mean I get it, it hurts." He allows, then grumbles to himself, "but he didn't need to cheer so loud that one time."

Loki and Hulk had come to a tentative understanding after Ragnarok. Though that was mostly because Thor had told Hulk to only smash his brother if he did something wrong. Before the end, he had been starting to hope that would not be necessary. His brother had actually promised to stay and help Thor find a new home for their people even! And Thor had believed him.

But then they'd been attacked. And for a brief moment he'd thought Loki was going to betray them again. But instead of doing that. Or running away with the space stone. He'd stayed.

And because of that he-. Nope. Stop it. Stop thinking about that.

"Oh Yeah. How does it work right now anyway, I never asked." Thor forcefully and obviously changes the subject. "You have a timeshare or something?"

"What?" Banner laughs. But it doesn't sound like a good laugh. More like he typically does when he's uncomfortable. He's started to play with the granola bar wrapper too.

"Just doesn't seem fair that you're the one in control all the time you know?" Thor explains, remembering how annoyed Hulk had been with Banner on Sakaar.

Stark's face quickly goes from shocked to gleeful. But Thor has no idea what he'd just said to cause it.

"See? He agrees with me." Stark points his thumb at Thor.

Bruce sighs and shakes his head. "And I still say you really don't want to meet him."

"You worry too much! Hulk's great!" Thor decides Banner needs cheering up. "Hey, if you're done with the- the sciency stuff, why don't we have some fun?"

Banner is going to transform soon anyway, so why not get started early? It would be a great distraction from the shit in his head. Which has been getting more and more difficult to deal with. He must be finally gaining some kind of immunity to mortal ale for he feels way too sober right now.

"There's a big space down there," Thor points out the window overlooking the hangar, "We can have like a- like a contest. What would Hulk-"

"Absolutely not!" Banner hisses, horrified.

"No?" Thor asks, a little hurt. He's just trying to help.

"I'm all for Dr. Banner getting more in touch with his wild side, but even I think that's a bad idea." Stark shuts him down.

"Oh." Thor slumps, glum. Right.

He turns away from them and searches through his pile of cans and bottles for one that is still full, already done with the one he just opened. In that case he's going to keep drinking until this jittery feeling goes away.

In the time it takes for Thor to find a few full ones, line them up in front of him, open one and take a drink, a new voice intrudes on the room.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Nick Furry stalks into the room, eyeing the monitor Stark and Banner are looking at.

Stark spins in place and turns Banner's computer monitor to face the other man. "Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury replies, not looking at the screen.

Thor just sighs and buries his head back into the crook of his arm on the table. His long hair thankfully blocks out the room and completely hides his face.

**"**We are." Banner explains, "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

**"**And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Stark adds.

"Are those Hydra weapons?" Rogers asks, apparently joining them as well. Why not? Why doesn't everyone just crowd back in.

Fury's voice takes on an appeasing lilt, "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Thor hears some tapping, "What were you lying?"

Thor groans even louder to himself, not liking how the vibe of the room has changed already. Everyone sounds pissed off. Maybe if he just pretends to be asleep, they'll leave him out of it.

The pretense is quickly broken when Thor's head perks up at Lady Natasha saying, "Loki's manipulating you."

He can't help the reaction. It's still so strange to have everyone talking about his brother so much.

"He's not doing anything." He defends. Nothing Loki has done so far Thor would call manipulating. He's barely said anything!

"He's planning something involving the Hulk." She calmly states, eyeing him suspiciously. Which is weird. What has he done that's suspicious?

"Dr. Banner, if you'll come with me." She motions for Banner to leave the room.

"I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Banner defends himself, "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Fury points dramatically at Thor.

Thor squints at him over his sunglasses, "Huh?" What were they blaming him for now?

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"What? That's not right." He answers, confused.

"Agent Coulson was there. He saw what happ-"

Thor flaps a hand at him, "Yes yes yes, not that. But what about that woman? Said you were friends." Thor hadn't talked to her much, hadn't even seen her since they killed **that guy** together. "You know, whats'er name. Shoots beams from her fists. She was aweso-"

"Yes, we know you're not the only people out there." Fury talks over him. Rude. "We know you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

Thor manages to bite his tongue this time. Fury is giving him a weird look and Thor doesn't like it.

"So you use the cube? Like Hydra?" Rogers frowns judgmentally, diverting Fury's attention.

"We had to come up with something."

Thor groans loudly, leaning back in his chair. He never understood this. He should have told them this earlier. So why not save his young self a headache and explain. "You can't keep blaming us for your problems. You- you basically- it's like- like you're running around the universe screaming 'Bring it Assholes!' So you- so don't get all bent outta shape when someone answers, 'Yeah! You're on!' "

It's ok when Thor does it. He can back his challenge up.

The room is blessedly silent for a moment.

"So you're basically playing with Nuclear energy while everyone else already has nukes?" Stark incredulously asks, turning on Fury. He's not completely sure what nukes are but is confident that Stark gets it.

Thor closes his eyes and rubs his head as the argument around him heats up again. Ugh. This is only making his headache worse.

"And who left it on Earth to begin with! He did!" Someone shouts.

Thor tilts his head back and dumps a whole bottle's worth of ale down his throat.

Midway through, the taste of it changes on him. Thor sputters, "Arg this tastes like piss!" Spitting out the disgusting liquid all over the table. Some even gets on the sceptre but Thor is too busy spitting out the awful taste to care.

It only takes him half a second to realize what happened.

"Loki!" He accuses, surging to his feet, glaring around the room.

"Wait. Loki is still here?" Rogers asks, sounding shocked. Stark and Banner are also looking nervously around the room. Fury and Natasha noticeably don't react.

"Course he is. What- You think he'd stopped?" Thor grumbles, trying to figure out where his brother is. "He's a sneaky snake."

Loki materializes in the doorway, leaning casually against it, looking completely unconcerned. He smirks as everyone rounds on him, curses flying from their lips. Everyone except Natasha, who is eyeing Bruce like he could Hulk out at any minute.

Loki's action is childish and petty. So that's why Thor just glares at his smug brother, takes an exploratory sniff of the bottle, then finishes it off in one big gulp.

Loki's face goes slack with shock. Hah. That showed him.

Thor shrugs at the side eye Stark and Banner give him, "It tasted like piss anyway."

"I'm sorry, did he really just 'magic' your beer to taste like-?" Stark asks, eyebrows high on his forehead.

"Yeah," Thor shrugs, "But I can still feel the alcohol, so whatever."

On the plus side, everyone has stopped yelling. In fact the tension had probably been about to snap. So as disgusting as it had been, Loki had just unintentionally stopped the fighting. Wait… did Loki just calm everyone down at his expense? In the past he never would have entertained the thought and instead just been angry at him. Now though…

"But aren't those the non-alcohol-" Bruce cuts himself off too late to Stark's hasty cut-it gesture.

What's Banner talking about? Thor squints at the bottle, sees the 0.05% alcohol in small print, then rears back with a shout, "What!?"

He'd been drinking what? Had they actually tricked him into drinking- But why-?

Loki turns his face away from him, hiding the fact that he is laughing. A small part of him is happy to see a smile on his brother's face, even if it is at his expense. But a much larger part is hurt, betrayed and angry. Why had his friends-?

Stark jumps back, putting Rogers between himself and Thor. "For the record, I tried to tell you but-" Stark says impossibly fast when Thor rounds on him, face thunderous.

"You led me on a false quest!?" That's something you just don't do! From his brother, sure, he expects that kind of behavior. But not his old friends! How could they do this to him?

He slams a fist on the table, making it crack.

He's not so angry that he doesn't notice Banner backing away from him. Or Rogers putting his hands up in a placating gesture while putting himself between Thor and the others.

"Actually Thor." Coulson steps forward, keeping one eye on Loki, "We don't carry alcoholic drinks on this ship, it's against regulations."

Thor wants to rage at them so badly. Sparks start jumping off his fists.

But then he notices that everyone is edging away from him. And that their eyes are so wide he can see the whites of their eyes.

Thor forces himself to sit back down, instantly deflating.

Frustrated at their off-putting fearful reactions to him, Thor throws the empty piss bottle towards a snort of laughter. The bottle sails through Loki's form and smashes into the far wall.

He then leans forward so his elbows are on his knees and his head in his hands, and groans. "This is so hard."

At least now he knows why he's been feeling so jittery and why his headache has been getting worse no matter how much he drinks. He so desperately needs a drink.

"Come on Thor." Loki mocks airily, "It's just a bit of **fun**." He snarls at the end.

Thor shakes his head in his hands, trying to force himself to calm down. He can't lose it here in front of these people. They are strangers. They're already reacting badly to just a small outburst from him.

No matter how many times he reminds himself, he keeps forgetting they aren't his friends.

"I'm sorry. Having a bad time of it are we?" Loki taunts.

"I can remotely activate the boot at any time. You want to find out what it feels like to drop thirty thousand feet?" Fury threatens Loki.

"Mr. Odinson. We brought you here to control your brother. If you can't even do that…" Lady Natasha trails off.

Loki raises his eyebrows at Fury, "But I'm not even trying to escape. I haven't even scratched the glass."

"That was before I knew you could do," Fury gestures at Loki's illusion, "This."

"I have just one question for Thor, then I'll let you get back to your… discussion?" Loki taunts them slyly, his tone suggesting how little he thought of them all for arguing amongst themselves.

Thor tentatively peeks out at Loki, his heart rate speeding up. What could Loki possibly have to ask him? This hadn't happened last time. He'd remember his brother being so obvious in getting his attention. Did he know-? Thor barely fought back the panic.

"Tell me Thor. What is the source of-" He gestures disgustedly up and down Thor's body. "You owe me this much."

"Uh… what?" Thor sits up slightly, not understanding what Loki is trying to say. He wants to know how he gained so much weight?

"Did you think I wouldn't notice?" Loki's posture is tense, and he's obviously struggling to hold himself back. "Did you think I didn't deserve to know?"

Shit. He knows! It's the only explanation! Thor looks frantically around the room, desperate for a distraction. Shit! Loki can't just out his time travel to everyone! Mother taught him better than that!

"Ahaha." Thor laughed nervously. "Nothing's changed. Don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't. Lie. To me! Not about this!" Loki's illusion stalks towards where Thor is still sitting, quickly losing his cool. The others scatter out of his way while Banner and Natasha back up further.

"I'm not! I'm totally not! Everything is normal and fine!"

"How did she die?" Loki asks, voice tight.

"Huh? Who died?" Thor's panic is derailed. By all the Norns, what is Loki talking about? Thor thought Loki had figured him out! Instead he's going on about someone dying? No one has died… yet.

"Anyone else feel they've forgotten we are here?" Stark whispers while Loki pauses to fume.

"I really don't-" He tries to explain but Loki cuts him off.

"Mo- Frigga! How did Frigga die!" Loki explodes.

"How do you know about that!?" Thor panics once again.

Thankfully, he is saved from having to say anything further by an explosion rocking the room, sending everyone flying in different directions.

The only thing on his mind as he falls through the floor is: How had Loki known about that?


	12. Banner 2 & Coulson

**Banner**

* * *

Bruce doesn't remember how he got here. All he knows is he must keep control. He can't let his fear get the better of him. He can't let the betrayed feeling he has turn into the raging anger it clearly wants to.

The terrified look he'd last seen on Agent Romanov's face before he'd closed his eyes to concentrate certainly isn't helping.

Hulk is angry and wants to come out to protect them and smash everything.

Thor, however, is standing right next to Bruce and is unnaturally calm. It's kinda pissing him off.

And is he… singing?

"Suns getting real low-"

"What are you doing?" He manages to grit out.

Hulk knows how to shut up annoying god.

"Thor! You're not helping!" Agent Romanov hisses, the fear in her voice also not helping. "Bruce, listen to me-"

"No? Fine. Uh… then…" Thor plops cross-legged beside him and offers him another candy bar. "Mars bar?"

Bruce shakes his head, still on his hands and knees. He can't believe this man. God. Alien. Whatever.

"No? More of a snickers guy?" Thor starts digging in his grey sweater pockets. Bruce wants to tell him to buzz off, he's trying to use his breathing exercises to push the urge to transform back down, but can't spare the time to get the words out.

"Which does Hulk like?"

This absurd question forces Bruce to turn his head, flabbergasted. How would Bruce know what the other guy liked. He never remembers what happens while transformed.

Hulk likes candy.

"Should've asked before. Sorry, guess that was rude." Thor sighs heavily.

"Thor! Let me handle this!" Agent Romanov whisper shouts, then completely changes her tone to something soothing, "Dr. Banner I need you to-"

Hulk doesn't like the mean lady who tricked them.

"No? You sure? More for me then." The man shrugs, ripping the mars bar open with his teeth.

"Thor!"

From behind Thor's somehow still intact sunglasses Bruce swears he sees Thor roll his mismatched eyes.

"So, is it Hulk's turn to come out right now or what?" Thor asks while taking a bite.

Hulk wants to. Hulk smash all annoying gods.

"Why. So you can 'handle' him." His voice goes deep and hulkish against his permission. Shit. He's losing it. He knew it. He knew they'd use Thor to control-

"Nah it's cool man. No pressure. Just wouldn't mind seeing him again - I mean meeting him." Thor gives the little nervous laugh Bruce has started to notice Thor does when he says something odd.

God… want to meet Hulk?

"But no smashing!" Thor waves the mars bar at him, "I already have a headache, it'll only make it worse… I think I have a hangover? It sucks." Thor rubs his head with his other hand. "Stark sucks. I thought we had a connection man."

Bruce stares at him, both parts of himself shocked.

Cynically, he has to wonder if this is all a ploy. The man is far too calm right now. Bruce growls, he hates being talked down to like this!

"How can you say that? You have no idea how strong he is." Bruce manages to grit out past his clenched teeth.

Thor sighs, "Ok fine! I might've exaggerated a little before. But just a little! Like-" Thor holds his hand up to show two fingers with a tiny gap between them, "Like this much." He shuffles forward and gets right in Bruce's face, which makes Hulk want to come out even more, but also blocks Bruce's vision of the increasingly panicked Agent Romanov.

Thor whispers, "We're both like- like two raging fires. Both strong in our- our own ways you know? Hulk punches. I hammer. Or I guess I axe now? What's the word? I chop?"

"Huh?"

Ha! Of course Hulk Strong.

Thor nods, then freezes. "But I'm still the Strongest Avenger!"

Bruce shakes his head. One part of himself is relieved by the admission that Thor thinks the Hulk is strong. Another part wants to show the god just what a weak mortal can do.

"Wait. No. Forget I said that." Thor rubs at his beard roughly.

"Let's make it a contest! For the title of Strongest Avenger." Thor pats him on the back. "Then it's fair see?"

Hulk likes games.

"So, Hulk, when the invasion happens," Thor begins to talk as if Bruce has already transformed. As if the other guy could even begin to understand what he was saying, it's one of the weirdest things to have ever happened to him.

"I want you to keep count of how many you get. Then we compare at the end." Thor points a stern finger at Bruce. "But no cheating!"

"Huh?" Bruce asks, no trace of the other guy in his voice at all. He must have heard that wrong.

But one glance over Thor's shoulder to look at Agent Romanov's terrified and frantic attempts to get Thor's attention makes him doubt that.

"Wait. Am I hearing this right? You- you want to compete with Hulk on who kills the most...?" Bruce trails off, uncertain.

"Why not?" Thor sits back, shrugging and looking a little hurt that Bruce might not agree.

Bruce looks over again at Agent Romanov and sees what is probably a mirror of his own expression. Complete disbelief.

"O-OK. Sure." He hesitantly agrees, slowly sitting back on his heels.

"Cool." Thor nods, and it's only as his hand falls away that Bruce realizes he'd been rubbing his back.

"Y-yeah." He stutters. He can't believe he didn't transform. He was so sure it was going to happen. All the pent-up worry and stress that had been building until now is, not gone exactly, but more manageable.

"Here." Thor shoves a snickers bar into Bruce's still shaking hands. That had been uncomfortably close.

"Feed your brain. It eats sugar you know." Thor informs him, like he'd just divulged some great self-improvement trick.

"T-thanks." Bruce accepts it, and actually opens it and begins to eat it.

"Great! Great." Thor pats him on the back. Hard enough it makes Bruce grunt and almost choke.

Which just cements it for him. This alien or god or whatever he called himself really wasn't worried about the Hulk. If he's to be believed his evil brother is afraid, but not him. Bruce wants to dismiss his lack of fear as just not having met the Hulk, like he did with Tony Stark but…

How is it possible to meet two people so unafraid of what the Hulk can do? Of all the people on board, Agent Romanov and Captain America have had the reactions he expected. The rest of the SHIELD agents reacted as he expected. But not those two.

"Good. Good." Thor again pats Bruce way too hard on the back.

It's only then that Bruce realizes that, what he'd thought was calm and unconcerned behaviour, was actually very strained. Thor's smile is obviously fake.

"You're good. I'm good. We're all good." Thor finishes the last of his bar in one bite, stuffing the empty wrapper in his pocket.

Bruce did not like what he's seeing in the god's body language. The ship's under attack, but Thor is in no state to help defend it. Is he about to… cry?

"Are… you OK?" Bruce asks hesitantly.

"Of course!" Thor gave that familiar uncomfortable laugh again. "Wh-why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh, I don't know?" Bruce hedges. "Did something your brother say-?"

Thor frantically shakes his head while scratching roughly at his beard. Right, mentioning the brother is obviously a mistake.

"No. No." Thor lets out a shaking breath, "This is just- just really hard, you know?"

Bruce doesn't know. But he's starting to get an idea. Loki, though completely crazy, had been able to tell that Thor was grieving someone. Bruce should have come to the same conclusion but had been too busy worrying about himself and what SHIELD wanted from him.

Before the explosion, Thor had looked pretty shaken up by Loki's questions. Bruce doesn't know who Frigga is but the potential of her death obviously meant a lot to the two of them.

"I shouldn't be here. I really really- but I have to be- cause everything'd go to shit- But I-" Thor starts to ramble.

Bruce frowns. Is he starting to hyperventilate? That's not good. The ship is under attack! They might need him up there!

"Hey Thor, it's OK man. I want you to focus on me. OK?" Bruce tries to head off the early signs of a panic attack. He shuffles over to Thor and starts to rub his broad back, giving him something to focus on. "I need you to breathe with me." Thor nods, wringing his hands on the handle of his hammer.

"I know it's hard but you've been trying." Bruce soothes, keeping his voice low and calm, "you just gotta keep trying right?"

"Right." Thor chokes out.

Bruce doesn't know how long they sit there, with Thor struggling to get control of himself. Bruce finds it a bit ironic that he's the one doing the calming. He'd been so angry and scared not that long ago. And now instead he's doing his best to stop someone else from breaking down.

A short while after he's had this thought, the ship stops rocking and seems to stabilize. It's only then that he remembers that there are three of them down here, not two.

"Little help here?" Agent Romanov asks, from where she's still trapped under some debris.

* * *

**Coulson**

* * *

Agent Phil Coulson rushes down to the Hulk's, now Loki's, cage. Status reports come rapid fire through his ear piece.

Stark and Rogers are handling the engine. No sign of Hulk or Thor yet.

The Helicarrier is under attack. Barton has somehow found them even with their stealth mode activated. Loki's men are now sowing chaos and no one knows where exactly they are.

Well, there is one place Phil is certain they are heading.

He's not going to let their prisoner escape.

A quick detour to secure storage and he is armed and ready. Loki had just brushed off their bullets when he first arrived, proving the need for the Phase 2 weapons. He's not sure if it will work. But he has to try.

When Phil arrives outside the room with the cage, he halts. Breathing only slightly elevated from his run. The metal door is still closed, no sign of a forced entry. But that didn't mean much given the ones attacking the helicarrier were SHIELD agents.

With a swipe of his passkey, the dark grey door slides open.

Not wanting to waste any time or lose the element of surprise, he rushes in. He immediately sees Loki standing by the control panel while Thor is trapped inside the cage. How did that happen?

Phil does a quick scan of the room. No sign of anyone else. So he quickly points the weapon at Loki and attempts to save Thor. Phil will need the blond god's help, he doesn't know what the crazy adopted brother is capable of.

"Move away please." He asks politely.

Loki turns towards him, his leather outfit creaking at the motion. He eyes Phil up and down, before slowly backing away with his hands in the air.

"You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you want to find out?"

Loki smirks at him, "How typical. You mortals do enjoy playing with powers you can't possibly comprehend."

Phil narrows his eyes. Something about his behaviour isn't adding up. It's suspicious how easily he is backing up.

"And when it backfires on you like it-" Loki disappears. The piece of fallen panelling from the roof that he had kicked hitting the railing where the illusion of Loki had been standing.

"Son of Coul, hurry and free me! The real Loki is still hiding nearby!" Thor anxiously raps on the glass cage with his gloved fist.

Thor's concern for his well-being is nice. They'd gotten off to a rocky start when they first met but he'd hoped that in the end he'd left a good impression.

Phil quickly walks up to the panel, keeping his back to the railing. Loki really likes his illusions and Phil didn't want to give Loki a chance to get behind him. He quickly looks down from his anxious scanning of the room to press in the code to open the cage up.

"How'd you end up in there Thor?" He asks, back to looking for the real Loki.

"Oh you know. One day I'll stop falling for his tricks." Thor laughs, striding out and towards him.

Wait. That's not right. Alarm shoots through him. He swings the weapon around to aim at Thor but the god is too fast for him.

The weapon discharges into the now empty cage, rattling it badly. Thor pulls Phil forward by the muzzle of the weapon, sending him off balance and right into the blade of a knife.

"You were so close to figuring it out too." Thor taunts.

He chokes. He looks down at the blade, a part of himself not believing it.

It doesn't hurt yet. But it will.

He falls to his knees as soon as both the weapon and the knife are pulled from him.

"I'll be taking this. You have my thanks." Loki smirks, giving him a mocking little bow.

The evil god turns to leave, not even bothering to finish what he started. Well, it's good to know Loki's as arrogant as Phil had first thought.

Phil collapses onto the metal grating, using both hands to try and stop the blood flowing from the wound. Why hadn't Loki killed him?

"You're gonna lose." He barely manages to choke out. He needs to say it. He needs to say **something**.

Phil looks up at Loki's scoff. "Lose." Before his eyes Loki transforms into one of the SHIELD agents who'd escorted him into his cage. "That depends on what I consider to be a win. And that I have something to lose."

Then the god is gone. Phil blinks. Well he sure was in a hurry.

He shuffles over to the control panel for the cage and leans against it, the blood slowly starting to leak out from between his fingers.

Phil loses time after that.

At some point later, Boss bursts into the room, startling him.

His boss kneels down next to him and Phil can't stand to see such a worried look on his face. Not for Phil.

So he reports, "sorry boss, he rabbited."

"Just stay awake." Boss sounds almost scared. That's no good.

Phil shakes his head, "My fault." It's starting to get hard to keep his eyes open. He's so tired.

"But I don't think… his heart was in it. Boss" He desperately tries to get the words out, "boss, they need something. It'll never work otherwise." He needs to give his report. Boss needs to know what Phil has observed about team dynamics and how to get them to work together.

"I got you." Are the last words Phil hears.


	13. Loki 2 & Stark 3

Author's Note: Longest chapter yet!

This is where things start to diverge. All of Thor's little comments are gonna come back and bite him in the ass. :)

Thank you to everyone who left reviews! I went through and reworked a couple moments thanks to some concerns that were voiced and am very happy that I did so!

Hope you enjoy 3

* * *

LOKI

* * *

Loki stalks down the hallway of the mortal ship, foreign weapon in hand. A piercing alarm blares in his ears while beneath his feet the ship lurches and shakes. The vibrations are almost enough for him to fool himself that they were responsible for his shaking hands.

The illusion he'd cast to appear as a mortal agent was still holding, and would hold until he was free of the doomed ship. He just needed to make it to the jet Barton had stolen and then he'd figure out what to do from there.

The temptation to storm over to Banner's lab and demand answers from Thor was strong. Almost overwhelmingly strong. Unfortunately, that would put his real body within reach of the monster, and he wasn't quite suicidal to risk such a confrontation anymore.

Any moment now the ship would be knocked from the sky by the monster. And Loki, no matter how off balance, refused to go down with it.

Dare he continue with his plan to rule Midgard? Loki thinks while he stumbles his way to the upper deck. What was the point? He'd always known, as a backup plan, that if he lost the war that his moth- that Frigga would argue in favour of his life. He'd been counting on it knowing that Odin would demand Loki pay for his crimes with death.

He briefly entertained the idea that Thor was trying to trick him. What better way to distract Loki than to dangle his mother's death in front of him? But no, he knew his brother too well for that. No matter how much he appeared to change, tricking Loki was something Thor could never convincingly accomplish.

If she was no longer- If she had really- If Thor-

Loki gripped his head with his free hand and leaned against the wall.

"Mo- Frigga! How did Frigga die!" Loki exploded.

"How do you know about that!?"

Loki shook the memory of Thor's panic from his ears. He needed to get off this ship, not get caught up in useless emotions.

Why should he care about what happened to her? She'd maintained Odin's lie after all. Never mind that she was the one, the only one, who'd trusted Loki with the throne. Now that the truth was out, she would follow Odin's lead and reject Loki as well.

"Mother still believes in you. So... I do this for her."

Loki shook his head again, his illusion wavering at his loss of focus.

The ship tips sharply, sending Loki crashing against the opposite wall. The impact startles him enough to remind him of what was going on around him. Using one hand to brace himself against the cold metal wall and the other holding the mortal weapon, he resumes his quick strides down the hall.

Loki just needs to get away. He needs space from his brother and everything he represents. Only then could he think and plan properly.

This was not a retreat. He was just regrouping. He had to come up with a new plan. A new backup in the unlikely event that Earth's champions survived the destruction of their ship. A backup in case his plan failed.

Maybe, for once in his life, Thor had the right idea. Getting drunk and letting events play out as they would was so very tempting. Unfortunately, that had always been Thor's vice, not Loki's. And his brother didn't have a mad Titan bearing down on him in the event that he failed.

He snarls at himself and slams his hand against the wall, startling one of the agents running in the opposite direction.

Thor is not his brother! The oaf can grieve on his own. It has nothing to do with Loki.

The illusion flickers again.

Loki curses and picks up his pace. His brief rest within the cage had not been nearly as rejuvenating as he'd planned. Wasting his magic on following Thor had been a mistake. He'd let his curiosity get the better of him.

When he finally makes it out of the stifling ship and out into the open air, he is greeted by the sight of Barton entering a jet. Loki can't quite stop the disgusted curl of his lip when he sees the sceptre clutched in the man's hand.

So much for relaxing once he made it to the jet.

Loki steels himself and follows the mortal, keeping his illusion intact. Sure, he could drop it and reveal himself. But then he'd be expected to take up the sceptre and regain control of the invasion.

The thought of holding the mind altering device sends uncontrollable shivers up and down his spine.

He is forced to run when the ship starts to close the hatch. He jumps up into the departing ship, just barely making it before the hatch hisses closed.

The others barely spare him a glance, so he is free to collapse into one of the seats and close his eyes. Exhaustion weighs heavily on him but he manages to keep up the illusion through sheer force of will.

Now that he is safe to relax, he notices an itching beneath his skin. It's a familiar feeling, and it wars with his exhaustion. He both feels like he is about to collapse and that he needs to break something.

Loki takes a deep, meditative breath in. Holds it. Then he lets it out slowly. He ignores the way it shakes.

He needs to plan his next steps. He needs to come up with a backup plan. He needs to forget about Thor. He needs to forget-

Don't you dare doubt she lov- loved you.

* * *

STARK

* * *

A collection of bloody Captain America cards are thrown onto the table, sliding into Tony's line of sight.

Rogers picks them up.

They are all back sitting around the large table on the bridge of the ship. The mood is very subdued now that Loki has escaped. They not only lost their prisoner, but also the object they were using to track the Tesseract.

The odds of stopping Loki from opening a portal are not looking good.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury says, folding his arms, standing before the table.

"Wait. Is he-" Tony asks, horrified at the implications. Last he'd heard Agent was on his way to critical care! Not dead.

"Docs don't think he'll make it."

Tony is struck silent at that. Shit. He'd liked the guy.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Loki. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Fury paces the bridge.

Tony looks around the table and takes in the downcast faces of Rogers and Romanov. They both look suitably subdued. Dr. Banner just looks tired.

Thor on the other hand… his expression is hard to read due to the beard and sunglasses but to Tony, Thor almost looks bored. And not just bored. Impatient. One of his feet has been tapping the floor the whole time they've been sitting here.

Dr. Banner had quietly told him about Thor's panic attack. Which explained why the god hadn't helped them fix the ship or stop Loki from escaping. If the so-called god can't even help them that much, he severely doubts they'll be able to count on Thor to help in the future.

Tony wants to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, he really does. But it's been getting harder and harder. Tony can't help but eye him suspiciously. Sure he'd managed to stop Dr. Banner from Hulking out, that was impressive. But beyond that and a few bits of information, how helpful has he really been?

Before, Tony had figured there were more important things to worry about. Like Loki. Like whatever shady shit SHIELD had been up to that they needed his help to fix. Now that he's met the former and has seen the secrets of the latter, he's left wondering... what exactly is Thor hiding from them?

And it is very obvious that he is hiding something. Painfully obvious, even.

He keeps saying strange things. He keeps acting like he knows them. His nervous laugh only brings attention to the fact he's said something he shouldn't. Hell, even his crazy little brother had called him on it.

"Thor." Fury starts.

"Huh?" The tapping pauses.

"You seem to know your brother very well." Fury sounds like he shares Tony's suspicions. "Anything you want to share with the class? Like where he went?"

"Oh. Uh. Well. You know. I'm sure he's- around. Somewhere." Thor flounders.

"Around?" Tony asks, straightening in alarm and turning to look fully at Thor.

"He did leave the ship right? He's not hiding somewhere waiting to strike?" Fury asks at the same time.

"What? Still here? Why would he-? He didn't before so-?" Thor just looks confused at the questions, squinting at them from behind his sunglasses.

"He has the Sceptre, Thor." Rogers reminds the hungover god.

Fury slams a fist on the table. "If he's waiting in the shadows to turn us all into his dancing monkeys, we need to know!"

Thor winces and rubs his forehead. "Can you all talk a little quieter? I'm the god of thunder, not the god of hangovers."

Tony takes a minute to enjoy the look Thor has put on Fury's face. Before the pirate king can go off on Thor, Doctor Banner clears his throat. For a quiet and outwardly meek man he sure gets everyone's attention fast.

"I checked the readings. If the sceptre was still on the ship, it would have shown up."

Everyone visibly sags in relief. The thought of Loki invisibly running around and turning the whole ship against them was not a happy one.

"Good thinking Doctor." Tony smiles over at him.

"Then can't you use whatever you were doing to track Loki with the sceptre?" Rogers asks.

"The radiation the sceptre gives off is too weak for any of the satellites to pick up." Tony immediately explains.

Banner nods. "There aren't a lot of satellites that can detect the radiation of the Tesseract either. We'll be lucky to find it in the next few hours."

"But by then it might be too late." Rogers frowns.

"As I said, we got nothing." Fury says with a last narrow eyed look at Thor. "If Loki's army can gain a foothold we might not be able to push them back. It's why we were attempting to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." Fury directs his last comment to Rogers.

Rogers does not look appeased in the slightest. Tony finds himself feeling the same. It's not a deterrent if it brings war to your doorstep. If Thor is to be believed at least.

"I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson believed in that idea, in heroes."

Tony barely manages to keep his reaction to those words from his face. He's tempted to pick a fight with Mr. One-eye. Normally he would. But the reminder of Coulson's situation has shaken him more than he's willing to admit. It feels a bit too petty to comment on the whole, 'Iron Man, yes. Tony Stark, not recommended,' thing.

Fury lets his words hang in the air like the overly dramatic bastard that he is.

"The Avengers?" Dr. Banner's hesitant voice fills the void. "Is this what you were talking about?"

Tony assumes he's talking to Romanov. But then she chimes in, "yes Thor, how did you know about the Avenger Initiative?"

Fury and Tony both turn as one and raise their eyebrows at the shaggy haired god of not-hangovers.

How does Thor know about that? Does Loki also know?

Thor actually looks a bit panicked and pops his head off the table, "What? What're you talking about?"

With Coulson down, he's not feeling as charitable towards the man's secrets. So Tony decides to add a few things that he's noticed. "Now that they mention it, You knew everyone's name here before they were introduced to you."

Tony hadn't noticed at first because he was so used to everyone knowing him. But he had thought it strange when Thor addressed people Tony knew hadn't been introduced to him, by their name.

"Whaaaat?" Thor looks around at them, even more panicked, which is even more suspicious. "No. No- I don't- didn't. We've never met. This is totally the first time. Right?" He gives them all a big, unconvincing smile.

"Yeah." Bruce nods to Tony, but looks apologetically at Thor, "and the way you talk about the other guy is a little weird." Thor's smile falters, he actually looks hurt at Dr. Banner's words. "I appreciate what you did back there. Don't get me wrong. It's just… weird."

"Not cool." Thor grumbles. "Thought we were friends."

"That's just it Thor. You've been acting like you know us. Like you already think of us as friends. Why?" Dr. Banner explains.

"I'd like an explanation too." Fury crosses his arms from where he's standing across the table from them. "You've barely cooperated at all. Which I find surprising. Last we heard Loki was trying to kill you."

Thor shrinks back into himself as everyone adds to the pile.

"Not to mention you haven't taken this seriously since you first landed on the jet." Rogers chimes in.

Tony makes note of the little glance in his direction. "Was that a dig at me? Just couldn't resist it, could you. You know-"

"Focus Stark." Fury admonishes.

Tony blinks rapidly, distracted from escalating a fight with Rogers and Fury. Is Thor… trying to hide his face in his red collar? He's mumbling to himself, but all Tony can make out is the word, 'future.' The only other time Thor has looked this panicked is when they first met on the forest floor.

"Thor." Romanov firmly gets his attention. "What else does Asgard know about us?"

"What do you mean?" Thor slowly lowers his red collar.

Tony instantly knows what she is trying to ask in a roundabout way and does not like the implications.

"She's asking if you have a way to watch us. Like they do." Tony gestures at Romanov and Fury. "You know spies hate being spied on." Tony explains.

"Spy? We don't spy on Midgard. Why would you..." Thor answers, looking confused. But then his face clears, "oh yeah! Heimdall the all-seeing! I forgot!" Thor practically bounces in his seat.

Tony wants to roll his eyes, cause that's not suspicious at all.

"He told me! All- all sorts of- of stuff. About you guys. Your names and deeds were made known to me n'stuff."

Well that's concerning. Heimdall the all-seeing? Tony maybe should have taken a brief break from becoming an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics to read up on mythology. Who or what is a Heimdall that's been watching them? How does he or it do it? What's the limit of it? Is Tony being watched even when Tony and Pepper are…

"It was consensual, I swear!" Tony blurts.

At the same time Fury yells, "you what!?"

Everyone stops and turns to look at Tony. He coughs into his fist. "Never mind."

"How does that work?" Natasha asks into the ensuing silence. "That's how you found us in the jet?"

Thor nods. "He's probably watching us right now."

Thor immediately gets an 'oh shit' look on his face.

He leaps from his seat and starts pacing and mumbling to himself. Tony exchanges looks with the others, not sure what to make of this. Thor seems to be working himself up into quite the agitated mess.

"They know. They must know." Tony winces a bit at the panic attack levels of panic in Thor's voice. "Can't believe I forgot-. Stupid stupid stupid!"

A few sparks arc off Thor when he gets too close to one of the monitors, shorting it out. Thor flinches away from it, gripping his hammer tight to his chest. He stops as far away from them as possible and puts his head in his hand. From here Tony can just barely hear him saying, "I can't do this. I can't- can't do- "

"I'll go calm him down." Bruce sighs, standing.

"Dr. Banner, I don't think that's wise." Rogers quietly cautions, tip toeing around what he's really saying. Tony wants to roll his eyes. If Dr. Banner didn't transform as they were about to become dead in the air, he wasn't going to from a few little shocks from Thor.

Nothing had happened when Tony shocked him either.

Dr. Banner gives Rogers an irritated look, much to Tony's amusement. "I do." And goes over to Thor.

Tony is sitting the closest to the two of them so he turns his ear to them, splitting his focus between the two groups.

Dr. Banner immediately starts to rub Thor's large back, speaking too softly for Tony to hear what is being said.

"Great. We have not just one, but two volatile powder kegs." Rogers sighs.

"Well gee. Who could've predicted randomly throwing a bunch of people together and expecting them to magically become a team wouldn't work." Tony says sarcastically, eyeing Fury.

"There's something he's keeping from us." Fury ignores Tony, frowning at Dr. Banner and Thor. "Something important. I don't like being kept in the dark."

"That's funny, coming from you." Tony idly comments, too distracted by what Thor and Banner are saying to be as biting as he'd usually be.

"I'm sorry. I'm trying. I really," Thor's voice cracks, "I really am. So sorry."

"Hey it's OK." Banner soothes.

"No. No it's not. You said no one can know and I've- I've fucked it all up man." Thor flaps a hand at the other man.

Now there was a weird statement. What has he revealed that Banner said he couldn't share? Something to do with the Hulk?

"I'm… sure it's not that bad." Dr. Banner tries to calm Thor, while clearly having no idea what Thor's talking about. So Thor was referring to something other than the Hulk then. Odd.

"You do?" Thor asks intensely. It actually makes Tony glance over at them. Thor is really taking Dr. Banner's words to heart for some reason.

"Well, you're trying. Like you said. I know how hard that can be. But you need to keep trying, right?"

Tony tunes back into the others. Banner continues to rub Thor's back while encouraging the god to keep trying.

"He's kept Loki's abilities from us. And then acted surprised that we didn't know about them." Romanov is saying.

"Or treated them like they were not threatening. And look where that got Agent Coulson." Fury agrees.

"Did he even try to help when the ship was attacked?" Rogers asks Romanov.

"No." She shakes her head. "And he wasn't surprised when he was told Loki had escaped." She glances back at the quietly whispering duo and lowers her voice, "he also challenged the Hulk to a contest."

A memory bubbles up and Tony speaks before he can think better of it, "again?"

"He did what?" Rogers' frown becomes more pronounced.

"So not only is he a liability, he's also actively attempted to compromise our operation." Fury summarizes.

Tony grimaces, they have a point there. Except he doesn't agree with where this conversation is going.

"Wait. Are you all suggesting-?" Tony can't believe it. Sure the guy is messed up, grief will do that to you, but they're taking it a bit too far. "There's no way he's working with Loki."

"Are you sure?" Rogers looks reluctant. "You said Loki's play was the Hulk." Rogers nods to Romanov. "What if the plan was to neutralize him in another way."

"What?" Dr. Banner snaps from next to Thor. Guess they weren't talking as quietly as they'd thought.

The man walks over to them looking very irritated. "You think Thor is going to...what. Kill me? He can't. I tried." He bitterly finishes.

"You all think…" Thor whispers, head downcast, following behind.

"Yeah. I got low." Dr. Banner frowns at everyone's shock.

Tony doesn't know what to say. The knowledge that someone he likes had tried to kill themselves makes an uneasy pit form in his stomach.

"I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you," he points to a wide-eyed Romanov, "dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk."

Tony takes exception to being included in that statement, but lets it slide, given the provocation.

A rustling fills the silence after Dr. Banner's angry tirade.

Tony raises his eyebrows as Thor begins to empty all his pockets onto the conference table. Empty wrappers, beer bottle caps, candy bars, and rocks are scattered in front of him. He immediately begins to dig through the junk, searching for something.

"Thor…" Tony hesitates to ask, "what are you doing?"

Thor picks up an empty wrapper and flattens it. Then throws it on the ground. "Why'd they have to make it so tiny?" He does this a few times, ignoring all of them, until he pulls a small object from the remains of a granola bar.

"I'm just gonna- go. You all can catch up." Thor peers at a small object in his hand, closing a gloved fist around it. "I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore." It looked like some sort of toy. Which is weird.

Wait. Can't do what anymore?

"Meet us where? Where are you going?" Rogers demands, standing.

"I am going…" Thor says, voice low and grave and serious. The most serious Tony has seen him yet. "To get totally wasted." He points an admonishing finger at Tony. "You owe me."

Tony gapes at him. So does everyone else.

"You all, you can keep talking about- about whatever." He waves the clenched fist at them, voice cracking, whatever he'd just dug out of his pockets concealed within.

Thor spins in place and strides from the room. Ignoring multiple calls from Fury and Rogers for him to wait.

"Don't let him leave!" Fury orders the agents stationed at the entrance to the bridge.

The two men actually have the guts to try and block Thor from the door, and get shocked and knocked aside for their trouble.

The brief pause gives Rogers enough time to run over. The man doesn't have his shield, so Tony doesn't know what the Captain hoped to accomplish. He'd been getting his ass kicked by Loki when Tony showed up.

Tony's assumptions are quickly proven true when a slight swing of the hammer sends Rogers flying. Tony ducks as the man sails over the table, landing in a heap on the other side, gasping for breath and clutching his chest.

Holy shit. Tony wishes he had the armour handy.

"Stark! Stop him!" Fury orders.

"Well if someone hadn't banned the armour from the-" Tony stands, giving Fury an annoyed look.

"He's our only lead. If you can't stop him, then follow him!"

He hates taking orders. And he hates it even more when One-eyed Willy is right.

Tony hurrys to follow, thankfully with Dr. Banner at his heels.

Tony doesn't put too much effort into catching up, he has no desire to find out what would happen if the hammer was swung at a squishy normy like himself. Thankfully his armour is also stored in the same direction Thor is going.

"Think you can stall him long enough for me to put the suit on?" Tony asks Dr. Banner.

"I'll try." Dr. Banner replies grimly.

Tony takes a brief detour to a secure storage room and puts on the suit. He really hopes it doesn't come down to a fight because the warnings flashing on his display do not fill him with confidence.

He bursts out of the room, using his repulsors to speed up his gait. It is awkward as hell, the suit wasn't designed to move fast and safe within an enclosed space. Thankfully he makes it to the exit to the flight deck before Thor can successfully leave.

Dr Banner, as the resident Thor whisperer, has placed himself between Mr Sparkles and the exit while trying to convince him to stay.

"You gotta know how bad this looks." Dr. Banner entreats Hammer Time.

"It's no big deal, I'll just meet you there." Thor replies.

Tony's eyebrows go up at that. So The Dude does know where Loki is headed. And hadn't been planning on telling them. Well that settles it.

"Hold it right there Mr Sparkle!" Tony raises his repulsors. "Meet us where? So you do know where Loki is?"

Thor, thank all the gods that may or may not exist, stops trying to gently push past Dr. Banner and frowns. "Uh, yeah. Don't you?"

"'Uh no." Tony looks to Dr. Banner for help, forgetting there is a mask in the way. He is so done with this.

"Oh. Weird." Thor shrugs, looking both harried and defeated. "Well whatever, he's at your place." Thor points to Tony with his hammer.

"My place?" Tony cries, "which place? Why would he-?" Tony's mind starts going a mile a minute, making connections with everything Loki has said and done so far. "Of course, he's a diva. He wants a show. He wants everyone to-" Tony pauses, shocked at just how far Loki had gone to make the invasion personal. "He could do it at any nuclear power plant in the world but he's gonna do it with my clean energy?!"

In his eureka moment, Tony almost misses Thor resorting to picking Dr. Banner up like a child and putting him down back inside the Helicarrier. Rogers's shouting snaps Tony back to his surroundings.

"Wait! Thor! You owe us answers!" Rogers skids to a stop next to Tony, shield in hand.

"Meh. You guys can catch up, it's fine." Thor dismisses the angry super soldier.

Thor smashes the tiny object in his hand against the remains of some weird alien tech on his wrist. He does this a few times with obvious growing frustration.

Then a giant axe explodes via some crazy magic into his hand.

Thor raises it to the sky. And even though it's a clear day, lightning strikes the axe, whiting out Tony's cameras.

In the time it takes for him to retract the mask to see what had just happened, Thor is gone.

* * *

Note: So now Thor has managed to convince almost all of the Avengers that he is working with Loki. He's just not having a good day.


	14. Loki 3 and Thor 7

Summary: Loki is up to something and Thor just wants to finally get his Norns-damned Bloody Mary!

* * *

**Loki**

* * *

Loki eyes Dr. Selvig as the man finishes assembling the machine to house the Tesseract. The man is scrambling to pin down his notes, the brisk wind at the top of Stark's tower once again almost succeeding in sending them flying off into the air above the midgardian city. It probably doesn't help that the man is constantly shaking from the cold.

Loki's not sure why he hasn't left yet.

With the connection between himself and the sceptre broken, there is no way for the mad titan to follow through on his threat to hunt Loki down if he dared to betray the being.

So Loki is free to go. He doesn't have to stay here and watch ruin come to Thor's precious Midgard. At any moment he can be on his way and never see the drunken thunderer ever again.

So then why does he hesitate?

It can't be any concern over the oaf. He'd hardened his heart against his adopted brother back when he was floating in the empty abyss. When Loki had been rejected by his family. Though… that had been under the assumption that Thor's first act at being reunited with Loki would be to try and kill him.

Instead the 'golden child' had vacillated between ashamed avoidance and callous dismissiveness. If Loki didn't know better he'd think that Thor kept forgetting about Loki's true heritage. But that was impossible.

A part of Loki knew it made sense for Thor to be too grief stricken to care much about a fake brother. An even smaller part he was barely able to acknowledge wondered if Loki's own death had somehow led to **hers**.

_"She was the wisest person on Asgard." _

_"Mother believed in you." _

Barton turns towards Loki when a small noise escapes his lips. Loki hurriedly checks to make sure his illusion is holding, hiding him from mortal sight. It is a weak spell that is only useful when there is a minimum of eyes to avert.

He's in control. Everything is fine. He's in control.

The mortal still has the sceptre in his hands. In fact he hasn't released it the whole time since Loki joined the mortals. In Loki's absence, the most competent of the thralls had apparently been given control of the others.

A part of Loki wonders if Barton has suffered any migraine inducing communications with The Other. Or could it be even worse for a being as weak as a mortal? At times the god of mischief was almost sure he could feel the eyes of Thanos' minion scanning the area. Looking for Loki, perhaps?

If that's the case then it's even more reason for him to leave. It's the smart thing to do.

Then why does he still hesitate?

Is it an admission of weakness if he stays? The urge to watch the fallout of a well laid plan is something he's always struggled with. It is perhaps his one flaw that, over the centuries, often led to Thor realizing who had tricked him.

Of course, there's also the temptation to finally confront Thor and get the answers Loki deserves.

All he has to do is wait for Selvig's machine to activate and Thor will come to Loki. The plan has the added benefit that only Thor will be able to come close enough. Hel, even the monster might be held at bay.

Then after that he'll be free to… free to…

_"...don't you dare doubt she loved you." _

Shit. Why are his hands shaking? He's fine. Everything is going according to plan. He'll get his revenge on Thanos and his people. He'll hurt and humiliate Thor like the idiot deserves. Everything is fine.

He's fine.

The sky is completely clear, yet a familiar feeling of an oncoming storm barely gives Loki enough notice to close his eyes.

With a mighty thunderous boom, a huge lightning bolt strikes the top of Stark tower, temporarily blinding Loki. It takes him a moment to blink the spots from his eyes. By the time he can see his heart is pounding. He recognizes the feel of the lightning.

But that is impossible!

Loki leans over the edge of the roof to look down at where the lightning had struck. He blinks heavily at the sight of Thor standing at the entrance to Stark's glass tower.

The Bifrost is broken! Thor can't just call upon its power on his own!

Loki seethes. He'd been so proud of his own gains in power and ability. And now to see that Thor himself has also gained in power... Loki had been so proud of himself, of his hard earned personal growth. And without trying his perfect older brother has outdone him again!

Barton and Selvig are still clutching their eyes from foolishly looking to the source of the noise.

Loki strides towards the edge of the roof closest to the balcony Thor had landed on.

A part of him is shaking in anticipation and adrenaline. The face to face confrontation he'd been denied earlier was finally coming to pass. Surely now, seeing the threat Loki posed to the realm, Thor would take him seriously.

Loki reaches the edge and peers down at the balcony a few floors below him. He does so just in time to see Thor's bastardization of a red cape disappear inside.

* * *

**Thor**

* * *

Thor lands on Stark's tower with a deafening crack of thunder and a blinding flash of light. Stormbreaker sparks with lightning in one hand while Mjolnir loosely dangles from the other.

He lands on the lower, main balcony. In front of him is the glass entrance, the spot a familiar one from when he was regularly visiting.

He does not let himself think about what his friends just accused him of.

"Stark better have the good stuff." Thor mutters to himself, taking the last few strides to the glass door. "I so badly need a drink."

He lurches back when the door does not open at his approach.

That's weird.

"Uh. Hello?" He asks, looking around. "Is this thing broken?"

When tapping on it with his gloved fist does nothing, he shrugs and raises Mjolnir to break the glass, not in the mood to have anything get between him and the bar. The door slides open just before he can make contact.

"Thank you," he says, something that Jane had long ago taught him was considered common courtesy on Midgard. And Stark's computer helpers always appreciated it when Thor was courteous.

Thor pauses as soon as his eyes adjust to the slightly darker interior. The design of the whole floor is typical of Stark's homes with its open design and floor to ceiling windows. It means Thor can easily see that no one is here to bother him.

What is not typical is the fact that someone absolutely trashed the place.

The remains of what used to be black leather chairs are scattered throughout the room. The firepit that had sat in a lowered circle at the center of the room is now an exploded mess of rock and pipes. A few pieces Thor recognized as decorations are partially embedded into the walls, sticking out at odd angles.

He makes a b-line for Stark's bar, hoping it hasn't been destroyed. The layout of the room may have changed since Thor was last here but, as suspected, he can always count on Stark to have a bar.

The identity of the person who was most likely responsible for the mess threatens to float to the forefront of his mind, but Thor ruthlessly squashes it.

He's here to get wasted. Anything else can wait. So he ignores the destruction and only cares that he is alone and that there is booze.

After the morning he's had he thinks he deserves a moment to himself to drink and prepare for the coming invasion. He tries not to think about Rogers running at him with his shield. Or of Stark raising his hands threateningly. Or how much he's screwed up already. Or the things Loki had said.

"What time is it?" He squints into the rising sun. He quickly looks away, the sunglasses not doing nearly enough to protect his sensitive eyes. Norns he can't wait to drink away the hangover the others forced on him.

"It is currently 7:45 am. The weather forecast is sunny with scattered clouds with a high of 63 degrees."

Thor briefly pauses in his stride, surprised Stark's helper spoke to him. He'd never really talked to it on his own before except to request things that he needed. He basically treated it like one of his personal servants back in Asgard.

"Thanks." Thor nods, continuing to the bar. "Then I'm gonna make a Bloody Mary."

Only a few more hours and he can be done with this whole pretending to be his past self thing. He can not wait for it to be over. He's already messed up so much, but he's sure the Thor of this time can fix things once he gets his ass down here.

That reminds him of Heimdall. Ugh. How had he forgotten about him? Growing up knowing the man was always watching had made it normal. It wasn't something he thought about except when he needed to be bailed out or when he wanted Loki to hide what they were doing from their father.

There's also the fact that Heimdall had been dead for the past five years. Dead because Thor failed to- No, no need to think about that.

But if Thor is forced to use his backup plan and get back to the future the long way, how could he possibly hide out on Midgard with Heimdall guarding the gates of Asgard? Not for the first time Thor envied his brother's ability to hide from Heimdall's all-seeing sight.

Thor had also forgotten to mention Heimdall to his other time travelling friends. Oh well.

Thor plunks Mjolnir and Stormbreaker on the bar. He skirts around the black countertop, ducks behind it and brings up four tall glasses. A quick rummaging in the cupboards and minifridge nets him a large bottle of vodka, tomato juice, hot sauce, worcestershire, an ice tray and salt. No celery which is too bad, he enjoys the crunch.

The bar has mercifully been spared the whirlwind of destruction.

"Stark want one?" He asks the home. He can't remember the house servant's name right now. Started with a G? Ge-something? Gar?

Thor considers his four glasses. Debating if he would be willing to share. Stark was faster than the others so he'd be here first. Making one for him would be a good apology for running off like he had. As well as hopefully convince the man that Thor was an Avenger. Not a… whatever they had started to think.

Even though Stark totally owed him one for the fake ale.

"Mr. Stark asks you to please not drain the bar before he arrives." The cultured voice replies.

With a shrug Thor reaches down and pulls up a fifth glass. Then, with the single minded focus of a desperate alcoholic, cracks the ice tray and starts plopping cubes into the glasses. Once that is done he opens the Vodka bottle, taking a generous pull from it in between pouring large helpings into each glass.

How much has Heimdall told Thor's parents? Thor idly wonders as he pours. What had happened to the Thor of this time? Were they all watching him for hints of the future that awaited them? His mother might be fine with not knowing her future, but Thor knows his father well enough to know the old man won't be able to pass up the opportunity. Especially now that Thor let slip that his mother died.

Even Loki knows of mother's death now. How will that change things? Ugh, why does he continue to be such a major screw up? When his mom had said that everyone makes mistakes, Thor didn't think she was thinking of the 'fate of the universe' kind of mistakes.

All he can do is keep trying, he reminds himself. Just like Banner said.

The lights dim, then brighten again. It's so subtle he almost doesn't notice. He looks up, briefly wondering if he could stop the portal opening if he wanted to. He could... probably. But Banner and Stark had been very specific on the dangers of changing too much. Banner had even said Thor was doing the best he could. So Thor was determined not to let them down. At least not anymore than he already had.

All he has to do is last until the end of the invasion.

It's his new plan.

Stark, Banner and Rogers should be nearby once the invasion is over to get the stones. The Tesseract isn't much of a stone of course, more like a box, but whatever. Anyway, all he has to do is not let the stones out of his sight and they can get him out of here. Or at least be told to come back for him. Stark's smart, he'll figure something out.

Thor can only hope that he succeeds in finding them before they leave. He really, really, really, really does not want to have to wait the long way.

Even if it's only a few years, those were some of the hardest years of his life. He changed so much over the course of them. Just hiding away and letting it all happen would be agonizing. Not to mention hiding from Heimdall would be near impossible.

"If I may interrupt, Mr Odinson." The house says while he cracks open the tomato juice. Thor waves permission for the house to continue. "Mr Stark would like to know if Mr. Loki is on the premises."

"Oh, probably on the ro-" Loki drops down onto the balcony, right in front of the glass door Thor had used to enter. "Right there."

* * *

Author's note: Sorry for the cliffhanger, but the next chapter was getting a bit too long!

Thank you to GarnetMonsoon, Natalie Rushman, Anne, johncorn, Raven White Fox, and the guest for the reviews! Your kind words have really kept me motivated to get this fic finished :)


	15. Thor 8

A/N: It begins! First part of the climax of the movie where everything starts to fall apart or goes really well, depending on the perspective.

* * *

_"Oh, probably on the ro-" Loki drops down onto the balcony, right in front of the glass door Thor had used to enter. "Right there."_

The door opens automatically for Loki. Which is weird. His brother strides into the room, oozing confidence. The golden sceptre is held loosely in his left hand, the stone glowing ever so slightly.

Thor's gut clenches with nerves. And it's a big gut now so that means the feeling is even worse than it used to be.

Why does Loki look so confident? Why is he back to holding the sceptre after Thor had gone to the trouble of freeing him? Does he know Thor travelled in time? How else could he have known their mother had died?

All these questions swim uneasily in his mind.

"Brother!" Thor greets enthusiastically, determined not to let Loki ruin his returning buzz. "I'm making Bloody Marys, want one?"

"I am not-" Loki instantly hisses, then smooths his expression, projecting uncaring confidence once more. "Are you so confident in your victory- wait, whose blood are you drinking?"

Thor squints over his sunglasses at Loki while pouring the tomato into the glasses. The proportions are about half vodka and half tomato, which is just what he needs right now. "It's just a drink name."

Loki lets out a familiar frustrated breath then starts again, slowly stalking further into the room, back in character. "Are you so confident in your victory that you're already preparing the celebratory drinks?"

"They were serving me fake ale." Thor answers pointedly, getting even more tense as Loki gets closer, his heart rate speeding up.

Loki scoffs. "Your victory will not be so easy."

Thor finishes adding the tomato and puts the container aside. He quickly reaches for the hot sauce, desperate to keep his hands busy.

So far Loki hasn't asked about time travel. That has to be a good sign right? Posturing and pretending nothing is wrong is normal… right?

Neither of them mention the trashed room.

The house speaks, halting Loki's boasting. "Mr. Odinson, the sceptre he is carrying matches the description of an object classified as extremely dangerous."

Loki startles at the voice and looks around, trying to find its origin. "Where?"

"It's Stark's house servant. Gar-something. I think." Thor starts liberally dumping the hot sauce into the glasses. "Sorry, I forgot your name?"

"It is Jarvis, Mr. Odinson."

"Oh yeah."

He'd forgotten. He'd never really gotten to know Vision and now felt a bit bad he'd completely forgotten his old name. Any being that could lift Mjolnir was worth getting to know. Unfortunately he'd been too busy running around the nine realms searching for a way to stop Ragnarok.

"The object he is carrying has been linked to many instances of-"

"It's fine." Thor interrupts, flicking a spare ice cube at Loki's projection, dissipating it. "The real him is probably still-" Thor points up to the roof with his free hand.

After a pause Jarvis speaks again. "Mr Stark thanks you for confirming his location. However, might I ask why you are not attempting to stop him? It is my understanding-"

"It's because- It's cause- you know what? I need a drink first, that's what. And Stark owes me." Thor rubs his forehead with his free hand, "and this whole thing is-" Thor cuts himself off when he lowers the hand to see Loki.

His brother has rematerialized, lounging casually on the one remaining bar stool right in front of Thor, an annoyed frown on his face. It takes more effort than Thor wants to admit not to react. Loki is sitting far closer to him than he's comfortable with right now.

"When did you stop falling for that?" Loki taps the bar counter, clearly a bit irritated.

Thor grimaces and sullenly answers. "I didn't always fall for it."

"Right." Loki raises a disbelieving eyebrow at him. "Name one time you didn't."

Thor instantly rebuts, "well there was that one time in the dungeons of Saka-" Then shuts his mouth with a click. Oops, that hadn't happened yet.

"Saka? I don't recall ever traveling to a place called Saka." His brother leans forward, jumping on Thor's mistake.

"Yeah, well…" Thor pauses in dumping the hot sauce to take another gulp of vodka straight from the bottle. He barely tastes it, just opens his throat and dumps it in.

Norns, he hopes Stark and the others get here soon. He'd hoped that there would be time for him to get properly buzzed before having to deal with his brother and the invasion. He should have known Loki wouldn't be able to leave him alone.

When they see Thor fighting the bugs they'll all have to cool off about the whole 'helping the enemy' thing they'd accused Thor of. Right?

Thor puts the hot sauce and the vodka bottle to the side, then realizes he's made a mistake and frowns. "Shit, I forgot to salt the rims."

He avoids looking up at Loki and instead busies himself with adding the worcestershire. The salt he'll just have to add separately. His hands don't shake as he dumps in the sauce, but it is a close thing. He is not drunk enough for this conversation.

"Are you really not going to even try to stop me?" Loki sounds a bit incredulous. He leans back, giving Thor a familiar fake superior look. "What, no appeals to my so-called better nature? No attempts to sway me with filial piety?"

Does Loki sound bitter? He sounds bitter.

Thor is so not equipped to deal with this right now. He makes a noncommittal noise as a response.

Thor puts the worcestershire sauce to the side and reaches for the salt, planning to just stir some into the drinks and call it good enough.

"And where did you get this?" Loki points to Stormbreaker. "Did it come with your new eye?"

Thor casually, while one hand taps salt into a glass, picks Stormbreaker up and props it up behind the bar. Hiding it from sight. "Oh you know, around."

Thor casts around for a distraction. What is taking Stark so long?

"So how was… how was space?" He glances up at Loki hesitantly as he says it.

"How was-?" Loki breaks into that painful to hear, crazy laugh of his.

It hits Thor harder than expected.

It makes him realize that between confronting Loki when he was playing Odin up until the Asgardian ship was attacked, he hadn't heard his brother laugh like that once. Ruling Asgard and getting revenge on their father had settled him in a way Thor had only begun to notice and appreciate back then.

"Like you don't know. You always did enjoy playing the fool. What's the matter? Don't want to admit to what you saw? Why did you even remove the-" Loki cuts himself off and let out a loud breath through his nose. He'd been getting more and more heated as he spoke but then reigned himself in. Unlike all the other times Thor had unintentionally sent him off into angry rants.

Thor relaxes his grip on the salt, putting it back down on the bar, glad Loki hadn't started shouting again.

"Never mind. Are you going to tell me?" Loki asks.

Thor reaches down and picks up five straws.

"Tell you what?" Thor asks nervously. Here comes the questions on time travel. Playing dumb hads't worked very well so far but that doesn't mean he'll stop trying.

"What happened, obviously." Loki affects a casual air, pretending he isn't obviously desperate for Thor to give him an answer.

Thor plops a straw into each drink. Maybe it's better if he just pretends not to understand Loki's question. If he doesn't admit to the time travel then Loki will eventually give up on asking questions… hopefully.

"Don't. Ignore. Me." Loki states, barely holding on to his cool composure.

"M'not." Thor mumbles.

He is hyper aware of everything his brother says and does. He's mostly worried he'll break down and cry if this goes on for much longer.

Thor stirs one of the drinks using the straw and then pushes it across the bar to Loki. He means it as a peace offering. He'd really rather avoid fighting his brother if he can avoid it.

Loki doesn't pick it up. Instead he just sits there, giving it a horrified look.

Thor quickly stirs one of his own and takes a long pull from the straw.

He hums in satisfaction. Ah, this is what he'd needed.

Loki stands and stalks away, rejecting Thor's drink offer.

Loki's mood swings are getting hard to follow. First he is demanding Thor explain some unknown thing, and then he's rejecting Thor's peace offering and storming away.

Oh wait.

Then he remembers. Loki thinks their mother is dead. Which means he thinks Thor is asking him to share a mourning drink with him. It is an old tradition to tell the tales of a warrior's many deeds over ale after they join Valhalla. Back in Thor's past, when Loki fell from the bifrost, they held a banquet in Loki's honour. The whole evening was spent telling stories of his brother's many deeds.

And they'd done the same for his mother.

"You owe me answers." Loki demands, keeping his back to Thor. "I will not get dragged into- we are not family."

Thor winces and fiddles with his straw, the ice clinking against the glass as he does.

"I came here to get what I am owed and that is it. Not indulge you. Not- whatever you are trying to accomplish."

Loki spins to face Thor and continues, a crazed edge to his voice, "your precious Midgard is fated to fall. And instead of trying to stop me, you stand there drink-"

Thor finishes his first glass with a final long pull from the straw. Loki's face goes red at the gurgling sound it makes.

The illusion of Loki disappears from the bar, revealing another one standing in the center of the room with one of SHIELD's new weapons. Sceptre nowhere in sight.

"Would you stop that and start taking this seriously!" Loki cries.

Thor has just enough time to pick up Mjolnir before Loki fires it.

Thor swings Mjolnir like a bat and deflects the blast out one of the windows. The glass smashes, the energy sent flying off into the open sky.

Battle instincts that not even years of playing video games and drinking could dull has him whipping the hammer right at Loki. His brother dodges, but Thor is aiming for the projectile weapon and he strikes true.

"Why should I?" He yells, fed up with everything. "Your dumb plan is dumb!"

Quickly, while Loki is trying to fire another shot at Thor and failing, Thor grabs two of the four still full drinks and hides them behind the bar. He went to all that effort to make them, he's not letting them get caught in a fight.

He just manages to grab the other two when Loki screams in rage, tosses the gun to the ground, and hurls a dagger at him. Thor ducks and manages to put the bloody marys on the shelf below the bar without spilling them.

"Dumb? I'm winning! And you don't even know what my plan is!"

From where he's crouched behind the bar, he reaches a hand up to grab the almost empty bottle of vodka and gets a slice across the hand by a dagger for the effort. He grunts but doesn't drop the bottle. Which he counts as a win for him.

"I know it's a sucky plan with a sucky army!" Thor cries back, grabbing a clean glass from the upper counter behind the bar and chucking it at his brother in retaliation.

"They are feared all throughout the galaxy!" Is Loki's indignant response.

"So?" Thor yells back childishly.

A vase shatters against the back of the bar, showering Thor in tiny pieces that get stuck in his beard and long hair. He halfheartedly tries to brush them out while reaching for another glass.

"So? SO? So you're going to lose, Odinson! How does it feel? To know you were bested by your **monster** of a fake brother!"

"Don't talk about yourself that way!" Thor chucks the glass as hard as he can to punctuate his point, clipping Loki.

"In what way? It's the truth! I didn't think you were still 'hung up' on it." Loki sneered.

"That's not what I- hey!" One of the remains of the black chairs hits the back wall of the bar. Thor grabs it and chucks it back at Loki, who just barely dodges.

"Can't I just finish my drink in peace?" Thor asks himself plaintively, reaching for one of the Bloody Marys and taking a sip.

A bunch of the rocks from the exploded fireplace crash into the display behind the bar, sending fragments of glass raining down on Thor. A bottle of some light brown alcohol is also hit, the aromatic beverage spattering across the back shelf.

"Careful, there's some good spirits here."

He hurls one of the rocks back at his brother. He does not even consider picking up Stormbreaker, or calling Mjolnir back.

Loki dives to avoid the rock, letting it punch right through the wall behind him. "Fight me properly dammit!"

A brief explosion of power from above briefly startles them.

Thor ignores it and takes advantage of the distraction to throw his old empty glass at his brother. Loki ducks behind one of the remaining black leather chairs. The glass shatters on the hard floor, sending the remnants of his ice cubes skittering away.

"And why aren't you angry? You should be angry! I'm trying to rule your precious Midgard!"

"What? How do you-" Thor hurls a few glasses in quick succession, "know I'm not?"

"Do you think I'm a fool? The sky is clear!" Loki ducks and weaves, the glasses missing him. "Wait, how long has it-." Loki stops to look out the window, like this obvious observation was of great importance.

Thor takes the opportunity to grab a bunch of lemons and limes from the mini-fridge.

"It's been clear ever since- wait. Are you having **fun**!?" Loki accuses venomously.

"What? No!" Thor refutes. Except maybe he is a little. He throws the lemons with such force that, when one of them manages to hit Loki, it bursts like a ripe tomato against his armour.

"You- you-" Loki rages, reduced to almost incoherent swearing. The parts that Thor can understand are quite impressive and inventive.

Thor gets so caught up in the moment, he doesn't notice that something has changed in the air. He doesn't notice the frost that's begun to form on the floor to ceiling windows, or the fact that he can ever so slightly see his breath.

He ignores all the signs and throws more limes.

And this is how Tony Stark finds them. Hurling whatever is at hand at each other while also throwing insults.

Thor ducks behind the bar once more, he even laughs a bit when he then pops up and throws the now empty bottle of vodka at his brother. So what if he was having fun? It was just like old times.

"OK." Stark says from a side entrance, pausing at the threshold. "Not quite what I was expecting when Jarvis said you two were fighting." Stark is no longer dressed in his armour. Instead he's just wearing a faded black shirt and tight pants.

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A/N: Thank you to Anne, RavenWhiteFox, Kitkatt16 and jiluh for the reviews! Hope the first part of the long conversation/confrontation met your expectations :)

Loki: 'Fight me!' -Throws a dagger at Thor

Thor: 'Whoa man! There's a beverage here!'


	16. Thor 9

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's been letting me know you enjoy this :) Even though I did get stuck for a while, I'm back to having fun writing shit hitting the fan. I'd thought that this would be completed at 17 or 18 chapters but now I'm uncertain. I have everything planned out, but the chapters just keep getting longer than anticipated!

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"_OK." Stark says from a side entrance, pausing at the threshold. "Not quite what I was expecting when Jarvis said you two were fighting."_

Thor and Loki both pause mid battle. Thor peeks up over the bar at their new audience and feels a little sheepish at the unimpressed look Stark is giving him.

Stark is no longer dressed in his armour. Instead he's just wearing a faded black shirt and tight pants. Thor frowns when he notices that Stark is shivering a bit but thinks nothing more of it, mortals are much more sensitive to small changes in temperature after all.

Thor then glances at Loki, weary of what he might do to Thor's friend, and blinks in shock when he immediately notices that, while he'd been distracted by the fight, Loki had let his illusion drop.

The green trim of his armour is lacking its usual shine, while the gold edging is ripped and frayed. One of his shoulder guards is missing, leaving him to look lopsided instead of imposing. As Loki brushes himself off, somehow still not noticing that the illusion has dropped, Thor sees that his plated armour on his forearm is cracked and missing pieces.

Thor hastily takes a sip of his drink, tearing his eyes away.

He'd maybe, kinda, sorta, forgotten what Loki had briefly looked like on the jet when his glamour failed the first time. He'd rushed off to the back of the jet and immediately closed his eyes. His attempts to erase the sight form his memory had apparently worked a little too well.

"What's the deal here? If you're trying to convince me you're not working together, you're doing a shit job." Stark says to Thor, walking further into the room, his eyes taking in the large scale destruction of his home. He also mutters, "what a mess."

"We're what?" Loki flicks off the last piece of lime caught in his armour and laughs meanly. "Thor, what did you do now?"

"Nothing!" Thor exclaims defensively, standing fully now that their fight is apparently at an end. He'd just been acting normally, why was everyone blaming him!?

"That doesn't sound like nothing." Loki has the gall to smirk at him.

Thor gestures with his drink, almost spilling some of it, "it's not my fault they took what I said the wrong way."

Loki and Stark both looked at Thor incredulously.

"What?" He doesn't like them both giving him identical looks. He feels ganged up on.

Loki shakes his head, clearly exasperated. "Congratulations! This must be a new record!" He gives Thor a smile full of teeth and says, "how do you plan to stop me when you are too busy fighting each other?"

"It's fine." Thor waves away Loki's words. "They'll get over it."

"Huh." Thor vaguely hears Stark say, but otherwise ignores him, too focused on his brother.

"Ugh this is so typical. And how long did it take Freyja to 'get over it' after you suggested she wed-"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Thor hastily cuts Loki off, glancing nervously at Stark. He does not want his mortal friend to hear that story. Knowing Stark, he'd never let Thor forget it! "You promised not to ever bring that up again! You swore an **oath**!"

"Oh? Are my oaths still worth something to you?" Loki sneers.

"What?" Thor sputters, "of course they- why would you think-"

"As fascinating as this drama is, don't we have an invasion to stop?" Stark looks pointedly at Thor as he says this. "If you really want us to 'get over it', bringing him in is a good first step." Stark gestures at Loki, then crosses his arms.

Loki gives Stark a superior look. It's obvious to Thor that he's trying to look unconcerned, but the furtive glance he gives Thor shows how nervous he actually is.

Thor finishes the Bloody Mary and reaches below the bar for another one. "Oh yeah." The sight of the remaining three drinks reminds him, he made one for Stark, didn't he? He grabs another one and plops it on the top of the bar. "Here." He offers it to Stark.

"Yeah." Stark says slowly, still hovering at the edge of the room. "I'm not drinking that."

"No?" Thor asks, a bit surprised. The rejection stings, yet another reminder that he is not where he belongs. Thor bravely gets his disappointment under control by taking a long sip of the drink in his hand.

He then nudges the drink over to Loki and gives him a questioning look.

Loki scowls at him, "No you eldhúsfífl."

Thor winces. "Hey," and looks down at himself. He may look like the typical lazy fool that sits around the fire and drinks all day, but no one on New Asgard had ever called him that to his face before.

By some sort of combined decision, Stark and Loki turn to each other and proceed to ignore Thor. Which might be for the best. He's really not having a good time right now. As badly as he'd wanted his friends to show up, he also already missed fighting with his brother. It'd been a good way to let off steam. But now reality was imposing itself on him yet again.

"So. Ruling over Earth huh? How do you imagine that'll work?" Stark begins cockily.

"I don't expect someone as lacking in imagination as yourself to be able to grasp the concept." Loki sniffs disdainfully.

"Yeah. Right." Stark gives Loki a skeptical look. "There's no throne. You know that right?"

"Oh please." Loki rolls his eyes. "The majority of you are ruled by Kings, I am merely declaring myself as the King of Kings. There's even a word for it in your language, I believe it is Emperor."

Thor quietly snorts into his drink. He'd forgotten how sassy Loki could be.

"Haven't you heard? Emperors don't last long around here." Stark shakes his head at Loki like he is the one being thick. In fact, from Thor's position on the sideline, it's kinda funny how they're both giving each other the same 'are you stupid' attitude.

"Look. There is no version of this where you come out on top. We're gonna stop you. With or without The Dude here's help." Stark waves a hand dismissively at Thor. "You've managed to piss off-"

Thor finishes his third Bloody Mary, digging around in the ice with the straw to get the last few drops. He pauses and looks up when he feels eyes on him.

"What?" He mumbles around the straw.

Thankfully they collectively decide to ignore him again and go back to insulting each other, while Thor swaps the drink in his hand for the one he was offering Stark.

"You should've kept your armour on then." Loki postures. "Without it, you're as powerless as the other mortals."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. Speaking of, I like the new look. Really goes with the whole…mess." Stark gestures around the room.

Loki looks confused for a moment, then glances down at himself. Thor watches the realization break over his brother's face as he sees that his glamour has fallen.

Loki hastily waves a hand up and down his body, recasting the glamour. His haggard appearance is briefly replaced by his full armour, helmet and all, but the illusion begins to break down instantly. The ratty and dirty reality pushing back against the shining illusion.

Thor raises his eyebrows, concern forming at the blatant proof of how tired Loki must be. He's never seen Loki lose control of an illusion so quickly. Not since they were children at least, when they would tire easily when using their gifts.

"Eh. Performance issues. Happens to everyone." Stark quips with a smirk.

Loki jerks up and looks murderously at the mortal.

Uh, oh. Thor knows that look.

In the time it takes for Loki to stalk forward a few steps, and for Stark to stumble back looking slightly panicked, Thor leaps over the bar to intercept his brother. Without his armour, challenging a Loki this upset would not end well for Thor's friend.

Thor claps a hand on Loki's bicep. So close, the bags under his eyes and the off colour to his skin stands out even more.

Loki immediately jerks back away from Thor, ripping his arm out of Thor's grip. The slightly tipsy god lets him, shocked at the shiver that had rippled up his arm from the contact.

"Wait, so this is the real one?" Stark asks from behind him. "Uh, no hard feelings? It's perfectly normal." Stark apparently can't stop himself from goading Loki. "No judgment here."

From the reforming scowl on his brother's face, the goading is working.

A part of Thor wants to sigh at his brother falling for Stark's posturing, but a bigger part of him is not surprised. Not when Loki is clearly too exhausted to be thinking straight. Thor swallows through the lump that's been forming in his throat. Up close Loki looks even worse.

Standing between his brother and his friend, Thor doesn't think, just acts to defuse the situation.

"Yep!" He chirps, answering Stark's question. Even though he'd been pretty sure Loki was physically here, he still finds himself shocked that he made physical contact with his brother.

"He's totally… really…" A sharp pain stabs through his chest as he stares into the eyes of his scowling little brother, making it hard to speak. When was the last time he touched his brother? He used to do it all the time to show how much he loved him.

The last time he'd seen Loki, his brother had been- had been-

"_I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, … Son of Odin…."_

"_No resurrections this time."_

_Crack!_

Thor hastily switches his drink to the other hand and steps forward, slinging his free arm over Loki's shoulders. He's kinda surprised Loki lets him but brushes the thought off. He just needs some physical contact right now.

"You okay there?" Stark asks, eyes flickering between Thor and Loki.

Thor nods at Stark a bit frantically, trying to get himself under control.

The strange shiver goes up his arm again. Weird. That's never happened before when he drank. Is it a new symptom? Or is it a sign that he's getting old?

Loki tries to squirm out of his grasp, hissing, "get off!"

Maybe it's something to do with the Jotun thing? But Thor had never felt shivers like this before when he touched his brother. It's even starting to travel up his shoulder and down his back. So weird!

A sharp pain in his side and a shout from Stark later and Thor releases Loki, staggering to the side.

Thor looks down to see a dagger sticking out of his belly. He just stares at it for a moment, shaking out his arm, trying to get rid of the lingering tingling. When was the last time Loki had stabbed him like this? Man, it feels like it's been a lifetime.

"Hey, Earth to Thunderstruck."

Thor looks up to see Stark is now standing behind the bar. Whoa, when did he get there? Thor blinks rapidly trying to clear his vision.

"Are you about to cry?" Loki asks in disgust. But Thor can hear the hidden thread of unease.

Thor grits his teeth and forces himself to breath through the nostalgia that swamped him out of nowhere. He needs to distract himself or he's going to break down here and now. What a funny thing to almost set him off too. Who knew he'd feel so nostalgic about getting stabbed by Loki?

"Oh hey that reminds me!" Thor casually pulls the dagger out of his side and tosses it to Loki, who almost fumbles the catch. He stumbles over to the bar, sitting at the seat Loki's projection had been lounging on earlier.

"Stark." Thor begins, looking at his friend, who is giving Thor a wide eyed look from behind the bar. "Did I ever tell you about the time we were having this big celebration- I forget what it was for- anyway, there's lots of people from like- all over- all very important. And Loki-" Thor gestures at his brother, and sees him giving Thor an odd look, but he pushes on.

"And Loki, who was bored or something, turned all the ale into snakes?" Thor rambles, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the look Loki is giving him. So he focuses back on Stark. "No?"

Stark jerkily shakes his head.

"Well, see, he knows how much I like snakes. So, while everyone was screaming and jumping around, I picked up a pretty one to admire it." Thor acts out the narration as he talks. "It sparkled red and gold in the light- And while I was telling it how pretty it was- poof! He turned them all back into wine."

"I had to walk the whole way back to my room with a wet spot right there." He points to his lap. "On the way I ran into a girl I was wooing." Thor shakes his head, smiling fondly at the memory. Those were good times. "It was so embarrassing."

Thor expects Loki to laugh at him or say something mean. But that's fine, he can take it. Any distraction from the nostalgic pain in his side is worth it.

"It was just a bit of harmless fun." Loki's lip twitches into a small strained smile.

"Harmless?!" Thor exclaims. "She could barely look me in the face without laughing for years!"

Stark is also looking at him strangely now, pausing with whatever he was fiddling with behind the bar.

"And then another time he turned himself into a snake. He's really good at shapeshifting. And he-"

Is he talking too fast? He's probably talking too fast. He should slow down. But he can't.

"Woah there big guy. Take a breath." Stark walks out from behind the bar but doesn't come any closer. In fact it almost looks like he's putting distance between himself and the brothers. Thor takes a long drag from the straw, sucking up the last of the liquid, the telltale gurgling sound filling the air.

Stark starts to rub his bare arms, muttering. "Why the hell is it so cold?"

Behind Stark, the frost on the glass windows is spreading. Thor frowns at it. The patterns the ice is forming is vaguely familiar, but he can't put his finger on it.

"Thor…" Loki cautiously says, which is weird, what does Loki have to be cautious about? "What... have you done?" His brother asks, stalking forward so he's next to Thor, eyeing the god of Thunder closely.

"Huh? What?" Thor blinks up at his brother from behind his sunglasses nervously. Not this again. Asking Thor open ended questions like this when he is drunk is cheating!

"Well, helping out my friends here-" Thor begins to ramble, hoping that if he just keeps talking Loki will drop it. "even if they did lie about the ale- So I made Bloody Marys! Which I'm still drinking. And- and I was telling a story to Stark. He's pretty cool you know. You'd like him I think. If you weren't being a giant bag of dicks with the whole invading-"

"Shut up!" Loki interrupts, poking Thor with a finger, then pulling back to examine it. Like touching Thor had transferred something to the finger.

It makes Thor even more nervous. What is Loki doing?

Also, where are the others? Shouldn't the invasion have started by now? Where's a distracting blue portal when you need one?

"Don't mind me, it's not like I live here or anything." Thor hears Stark mutter to himself. But he spares his friend no attention. He really really does not like the intent look that Loki is now giving him.

"I was wrong earlier, when I asked how much dark matter your father used." Loki says slowly. "That's not how you got here at all, is it?"

Thor blanches. Oh shit.

"What? No! That's- that's totally how I got here! Dad did his whole-" Thor make a wavy motion with his hand, laughing awkwardly.

"I can't believe it." Loki spins away and begins pacing. "How is this possible?"

"It's totally what happened!" Thor stands up in alarm. "What else could have-"

"How could I have been so blind?" Loki throws his hands up in the air. "It explains everything! Your drastic change in appearance. Your knowledge of things you couldn't possibly know. Your strange affection for and familiarity with the mortals."

"Wait, even your brother thinks you've been acting weird?" Stark comments, but Thor ignores him again. Loki can't be implying what Thor thinks he is, can he?

"Hey, when's that invasion gonna start huh?" Thor tries to deflect from whatever Loki thinks he knows. "Shouldn't you be doing, you know, invasiony things?"

"You." Loki spins and pins Thor in place with a look. "Are from the future."

The voice of his mother saying the same thing not hours earlier rings in Thor's ears.

The mother that he'd left to die.

"Nuh uh". Thor shakes his head, backing away from his brother and Stark, tears gathering at the creases in his eyes. "No way. Why would you think-"

Shit shit shity shit.

"What." Stark deadpans.

"Did I win? Are you back here to try and prevent-" Loki begins almost gleefully, then pauses and eyes Thor up and down. "Wait. You're not actually crying are you?" Loki's voice is clearly aiming for derisiveness but panic beats it to the punch.

Thor turns his back on him scrubbing his forearm over his eyes.

"No." He denies, but his voice shakes too much for it to be believable.

"What, did I do something so horrific that this was your only option?" Loki asks. "How did you even- no. This is too much even for you. Who sent you? Was it..." His brother trails off.

Thor doesn't like the sound of that, he turns and peeks at Loki past his arm.

"Is Mother even dead?!" Loki explodes. "Or was that a lie too!?"

"Uhh." Thor flounders.

A sober part of the god is surprised it took Loki so long to figure it out, even with Thor messing up as often as he had. In the past there was no way he'd have been able to keep the secret from his brother for so long.

"The portal's gonna open soon, right? Yeah. So I'm just gonna…" Thor edges towards the door to the balcony.

"Are you running away?" Loki accuses, his old anger returning.

"No. Nope. Just gotta. You know. Do a thing. Fuck." Thor summons Stormbreaker, catching it in one hand.

"Thor, don't you dare!"

"I feel forgotten. Jarvis, make a note. I hate it."

I'd never forget you sir.

"ETA on the others."

A jet is hovering over the tower as we speak sir.

"Get ready to deploy."

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A/N: If there's anything you liked, I'd love to hear what it is! :) I'm always trying to improve so any comments are a huge help! 3

*eldhúsfífl (EHLD-hoos-feef-uhl) — "hearthfire idiot", an idiot who sits by the fire all day, a good-for-nothing


	17. Steve

A/N: Turns out spending four nights camping is killer for my writing energy levels. I felt hung over from lack of sleep by the end. :p So here's a short chapter to tide you over while I finalize the rest of the story :)

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Steve has been having a strange time in this new century.

He wishes he could say that he's liked most of what he's seen, but that would be a lie. It's all just so strange and alien. Things had been changing so fast in his time, but he'd never imagined it would be to this degree.

The strides made to technology he's confident he'll be able to wrap his head around eventually. It's the changes to the people that he is not so sure about.

They may claim that the country he woke up in was America, but it isn't the America Steve remembers. Sure, there are hints of it here and there: Buildings that have remained the same, accents that are similar enough to what he heard growing up, baseball.

The gym he's been going to has been a microcosm of this. The gym was brand new when he was a kid, and now all these decades later smells strongly of mold.

Sometimes Steve looks out at the world around him and wonders, if he'd been told that the Germans had won the war, and this was the new America, would he have been able to tell the difference? In this fast paced future, the war feels so far away and yet at the same time, like it was just yesterday.

Did Steve's fellow soldiers die for the right of men and women to dress and act indecently? Did they die so people could throw bags of perfectly good food into the garbage? So they could sing truly ear piercing music?

His file at SHIELD, that he'd snuck a look at, had claimed he would be experiencing culture shock. Steve had yet to look up what that was. Probably some fancy new name for something that already had a perfectly good term. Like shell shock.

He's being too harsh on the time he's woken up in. He can acknowledge that... sometimes. And he is often reminded about how wonderful things are now by the kind of technology he'd thought was the stuff of dime science fiction rags.

Sometimes he wishes it was Bucky who'd been defrosted from the ice. He'd have appreciated all the modern marvels that Steve was struggling with.

He'd been so relieved when Fury had called him in and given him something to do. He didn't know how to handle a world that claimed to be at peace. He'd thought about reenlisting and helping the US military with their peace keeping missions, but Fury and his people had convinced him to take some time for himself first.

It was hard, suddenly finding himself with no war to fight. And then it felt like war was practically thrown on his lap. He had to kinda wonder if Fury had suspected something like this alien invasion was going to happen, and had been keeping Steve in reserve.

Those suspicions had been proven correct when Fury gave them his speech about the Avengers Initiative. The people he expects Steve to lead into battle are nothing like his old pals the Howling Commandos.

He's not sure what to make of Agent Natasha Romanov. She kind of reminds him of Peggy. But only in the sense that she's not like other dames. That and she's real handy with a gun. But that's pretty much where the similarities end. It leaves him feeling off balance and uncertain how to treat her. Does he call her ma'am? Miss? Mrs.? Or… what's that weird new one? Ms.?

He settles on treating her with the same respect he gave to Peggy. Steve calls her 'Agent Romanov' and hopes for the best.

Doctor Banner is a bit more of a familiar character. He reminds Steve of the scientists that he'd been introduced to that were working on Project Rebirth. However, none of those men would turn into a giant green monster at the slightest provocation. After seeing the devastation the Hulk could bring in the dossier, Steve had been very uncomfortable with him onboard the ship. Stark of course hadn't helped.

Tony Stark. The son was nothing at all like the father. It was jaring, seeing an approximation of Howard's face on a cocky chatterbox. It made Steve pine for the past more than anything else he'd seen or experienced in this new time. To constantly have his expectations of how Stark would behave upended by the man himself had been extremely off putting and disappointing.

It wasn't fair to Stark, a part of Steve knew that. And even though the man gave the appearance of a braggart, he and Banner had ended up delivering on a method of tracking the Tesseract.

Thor was just odd. Steve hadn't been happy when Stark had unilaterally decided to allow him to join them in the jet. But Thor had at least provided them with valuable intel, even if it had felt like every nugget of information had to be pried from him. During the war, Steve had seen men lose themselves to drink, and it never ended well for them or for their platoon.

Steve had looked at Thor as a liability from the beginning and was not surprised to be proven correct.

Aliens from space was a bit beyond his pay grade, but stopping megalomaniacs who thought they were better than everyone else was his bread and butter.

Steve should have anticipated Stark running off to confront Loki and Thor alone. The file on him had essentially stated that the man didn't take direction well.

"I'm not sitting on my thumbs while the world is at stake." Stark had snapped at Steve when he tried to tell Howard's son to wait for Fury's orders.

What had followed was a mad scramble for a jet and Agent Romanov not so gently guiding Banner onto said jet.

Steve was not comfortable with the idea of letting the Hulk out over New York, and from the look of it, neither was Banner. But he'd assured the Doctor that they would only call on him if it was too late to stop the invasion from starting.

Thankfully, when New York is less than half an hour away, Stark calls them.

Steve is surprised and grateful the man thought to give them an update on the situation.

"Glowing cube is here. Right on the roof of my tower, the bastard. Lucky for all of you, the party hasn't started yet."

Steve leans into the mic Romanov is holding and asks, "what about Thor and Loki, are they there?"

"One sec... Yep. I see them. Hurry your pretty asses up, or there won't be any party favours left."

Steve barely holds back a retort about taking things seriously.

"Wait," Agent Romanov snaps. "Stark, don't engage the Asgardians alone."

Steve stares at her. "He wouldn't," he says aghast. No way would Stark be that stupid. Right?

"Weren't you listening? It's Aesir. God why am I the only one…" Stark's voice fades out.

"Did he just get out of the suit?" Steve asks, voice strained. Hoping to be wrong.

Agent Romanov just sighs, "yes. Yes he did."

Steve spends the rest of their approach to New York pacing the ship, desperate to just be able to do something. He hates feeling helpless like this.

"Huh. That's strange," Agent Romanov says from where she is standing just behind the cockpit.

"What?" Steve asks, walking over to stand next to her.

"The Tesseract isn't behaving like it did in New Mexico."

Steve peers out the front window to where New York sits heavy along the skyline. On the tallest building, of course Stark had to build the tallest one, he can just make out a light so blue it's almost white.

"What did it do last time?" Steve asks.

"When it destabilized, the blue was so dark it was almost black," she says.

"Doctor Banner?" Steve looks back to see if the resident expert has an opinion.

"What?" the Doctor blinks owlishly at him. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Aren't you an expert on…." Steve makes a vague motion with his hand.

"Gamma radiation," Banner fills in, "not…" the Doctor doesn't bother to explain further and waves Steve away dismissively.

Steve frowns but doesn't comment. He doesn't want to cause any conflicts, not when they are so close to the battlefield. Even if he does hate people assuming he wouldn't understand something.

The jet does a circle of the building when they get closer, looking for a safe spot to land and for the location of Loki, Thor and Stark.

"Can you see anything?" Agent Romanov asks him.

The light emanating from whatever machine Loki has set up is almost blinding, but if he squints, Steve can just make out a small shape nearby.

"There's someone on the roof," he reports, "can't tell who."

"Is it Barton?" she asks.

"I…" Steve hesitates, then decides, no, he can't tell, it's too bright to make a call.

He tells her so. She doesn't seem too upset by the news, just nods stoically. It's strange and very cold, weren't they friends?

"Bring us down to the balcony there." She points the pilot to the bigger, lower balcony on Stark's ostentatious tower.

"Alright, Loki packs a punch," Steve reiterates the plan he'd gone over with them earlier. "And I assume Thor must as well. Agent Romanov, you and I-"

"Actually Captain, change of plans," She interrupts him. "My orders are to secure the Tesseract."

Steve blinks, he doesn't remember Fury giving those orders. And why didn't she say anything earlier?

"You two distract Loki and Thor," she continues, "if we're lucky, I can shut this whole thing down before the invasion can even begin."

"In that case, shouldn't Doctor Banner go with you?" Steve asks. As the closest to what they have as an expert it just makes sense.

"What he said," Doctor Banner agrees.

"Loki is afraid of you, remember?" she says to Dr. Banner. Steve looks at the unassuming Banner with surprise, this is news to him. Why doesn he feel like he's being kept out of the loop? In fact, it's felt like this since the beginning.

"Yeah, but that was Thor saying it." Dr. Banner wrings his hands.

"I think the Hulk also makes Thor nervous," she states confidently. "They might not try anything with you there."

"That's a big might," Dr. Banner grimaces.

"She's right Doctor." Steve agrees with Agent Romanov. "Our objective is to secure Loki and the Sceptre."

"Ugh this is such a bad idea," Dr. Banner mutters, head in his hands.

Steve holds back a grimace. This is why he hated working with civilians during the war. Why did Fury decide to put two of them on the team?

As soon as the jet is level with the balcony, Steve jumps out, vibranium shield in hand. Dr. Banner follows at a slower pace with Agent Romanov helping him out. Steve glances back at her to nod, and the jet pulls away.

It's difficult to see through the glass into the room, at first all he can see are three dark shapes moving around. Why Stark decided to get frosted glass when he was this high up Steve has no idea. Wouldn't he want the glass to be clear to enjoy the view?

Having never been so high, Steve is surprised that he can see his breath in the air. The extra height sure makes a difference.

"Holy shit it's cold," Dr. Banner swears behind him.

Before he can say or do anything, one of the shapes moves towards them and becomes clear. Steve sees Thor standing with his back to them. Through a hole in the glass, he can just barely make out Stark, still out of his armour and helpless.

His breath catches in his throat when he sees Thor summon his axe.

Assuming the worst, Steve throws his shield at the god.

* * *

A/N: This started as a short bit from Steve's perspective to transition into what happens next. But then I got distracted by him thinking about his new teammates and his perspective on them and the future and it got longer than anticipated. Plus I realized he was the only one who hadn't had a chance to go 'wtf is up with these Norse guys?' So this chapter is a brief interlude from Steve before we get back into the action!

Next update should be in two weeks! (and I feel confident saying that given I've been able to keep this schedule for the past 10ish chapters.)


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